that ministry in her general services to reimburse certain jurisdictions for the cost of obtaining paper ballot voting systems for the general elections for federal office to be held in november two thousand and eight to reimburse jurisdictions for the cost incurred in conducting audit for hand counting of the results of the general elections for federal office to be held in november two thousand and eight and for other purposes pursuant to the rule that gentlewoman from california must love for an in the gentleman from michigan m ehlers each will control twenty minutes general recognizes gentlewoman from california mr speaker i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on h r fifty thirty six and t ordered this is baker h r fifty thirty six the emergency assistance for secure elections act of two thousand and eight is a bill that provides state and local governments the opportunity to have safe secure and audible elections in this election year i commend congressman holt and his bipartisan co sponsors for their continued dedication to the issue of election reform this bill recognizes that two thousand and eight is quickly approaching and options must be provided to ensure the integrity of the vote our election process must be open and transparent to ensure public confidence we are now eight months from the general election and cannot play state and local governments in a position to require change therefore the bill is one hundred percent optional state and local governments can choose which provisions they can successfully implement opting in in titles of state or jurisdiction to reimbursement in committee several changes were made to this bill through the bipartisan cooperation and i want to thank mr taylor's for his support during the committee markup changes were also made to meet the concerns of disability groups as well as sta and local government h r fifty thirty six as amended reimburses jurisdictions for retrofitting paperless touch screen voting machines or d r ease with systems that produce a voter verifiable paper record allows for reimbursement for jurisdictions to obtain backup paper ballots in the event of failure of electronic voting systems and authorize zrich reimbursement for jurisdictions which conduct a manual audit of a federal and any state and local  november two thousand and eight in no less than two percent of the precincts during the markup all the amendments offered by the republicans were accepted by voice vote and those four amendments were to allow for artists to commence within forty eight hours after states or relevant jurisdictions involved announce the unofficial vote count to require no hand count to commence until at least eight hours after the polls close and requires the bows to be in a secure location until the hand count commences ensures that the hand counting teams when conducting a hand count of the election results have equal representation from both political parties of the candidates who receive the two greatest numbers of aggregate votes cast and requires that after the hand count is complete the bows be run through a tabulating machine or scanner for verification of the tally is such a machine or scanners available having a voter verified paper trail with an automatic routine audit will go a long way to increase voter confidence and deter fraud post election audits are an essential tool to increase voter confidence in the election process i will allow the bill authorizes such sums as necessary the c b l has come back to us with a score of six hundred eighty five million dollars about what we expected and some that was in the original holt bill the c b l score however anticipates the participation of everyone in this bill and i think it is one highly unlikely that every jurisdiction will participate in every aspect of the bill since they have the opportunity to do nothing or to pick and choose portions the bill so the it is clear that the actual score or or total would be less i would note that we're spending over ten billion dollars a month in iraq and that we have spent a total of one point three two billion dollars on democracy building programs in afghanistan in iraq the see below figures certainly less than that and it seems to me if we can't protect our elections at home really how are we supposed to be a model of democracy without safe and secure and audubon elections the country could end up revisiting the contentious and mr mistrusted count of two thousand and even more recently in the contested election of district thirteen where people could not verify votes through a actual written ballot the bill reported out of committee makes the changes requested by the minority to the legislation be keeps the core purpose of the bill providing a voter verifiable paper and off of the paper trail if this bill isn't acted promptly jurisdiction should have adequate time to purchase and implement the voting system upgrades and the other provisions of this bill and provide voter confidence in the he sincerely is very extremely concerned about accuracy in voting and what can be done to make certain that the results are accurate he expressed that in his first spell h r eight eleven which did not receive committee consideration and i spent considerable time with him trying to work out the details of that bill but we simply could not reach an agreement or even come close to agreement the net effect of that was to  the part of mr holton i commend him again for his concern and his persistence he authored five zero three six and when i reviewed it with him i thought this might mean a much better basis for agreement that by working together we might be able to achieve that unfortunately we have not achieved full agreement on it although we did get it out of committee and i supported it out of committee because i thought should reach the floor for debate i anticipated that would be taken up under rule where we might have the possibility for additional compromise but that has not happened and there are a number of issues that still remain i agree with mr holt that we should have some type of redundancy in our recording systems i disagree that it has to be paper i think there are other methods of achieving when done in c and recently we had an exposition of sorts up in the house of ministration committee room where we had demonstrations of equipment which has been developed which shows we don't see an electronic fashion and i think would be fully as reliable as redundant paper another area where we disagree is there are ways of achieving what mr hope wishes i think the optical scan method is certainly a valid one and that is what the state of michigan uses other states are beginning to use that protect final final blow to our efforts which is the judgment of the c p o that was six hundred eighty five million dollars for a one year i realize that mr holt had estimated that would be the cost  to the opinions of the members of this party and i'm afraid that that is likely to be the death knell so in summary i certainly commend mr holt for his concerns seconds command in person efforts i just don't think we've achieved enough agreement to effectively make this a bipartisan bill and therefore i suspect it will not pass and i will have to have a difficult and difficult day supporting and at this point i would california mr speaker i would like to recognize the author of the bill congressman rush holt from new jersey who has been tremendously diligent in pursuing these with four measures and really without his persistence we would not be here today i would recognize him for five minutes chillness recognize for five minutes mr speaker i thank the general a d and i rise to urge my colleagues to support the emergency assistance secure elections act of two thousand and eight this is a bill that is optional for counties it's to encourage counties and states to do the right thing we should all want national standards of accessibility reliability and audit ability for our elections this is a an emergency stop gap measure to see that we achieve as much of that as possible before the november elections the principle is simple anything of value should be ought to bowl votes are valuable they should be audited so that voters can have the confidence that each vote is recorded the way the voter intended in too many places around the united states votes are not audited in too many places around the united states they are not even auto ball voters leave the polling places wondering if their vote will be counted as they intended an election losers and their supporters are left wondering if they can believe the results already in this primary season there have been numerous numerous problems questions and unresolved disputes in county after county and state after state electronic voting systems have failed in many ways failure to start up in the morning a mismatch between the electronic count and the end of day printout failed memory cards and on and on and on and in too many places the irregularities cannot be resolved there is no way to resolve them there is no way to know because there is no record of the voters intention this legislation would reimburse counties and states for providing voters with paper based records of their vote another words paper ballots that would not only make it possible for audits but this legislation would go further and reward states for putting in place procedures to conduct those audits this would go a long way toward restoring confidence in the process there is still time before november to secure our election system if our election assistance for secure lections act is enacted localities could choose to convert to paper ballot voting systems offer emergency paper ballots when to be available if machines fail and to conduct audits to confirm the accuracy of the electronic tallies i want to stress that this is optional we took great pains to accept the suggestions of the minority party to take suggestions of election officials to take suggestions of people all over the country lawyers and others who have looked at elections in detail we simplified this so that counties couldn't object that we were making them do something that we weren't going to support them on this is optional we've simplified it as much as possible so that it could be implemented in time for this year's election and it could be this modest bill simply entitles jurisdictions to reimbursement for the costs to conduct fully audit of all fully oughta ted elections it will encourage states and counties that want to do the right thing on behalf of their voters but time is of the after essence if we don't take action immediately we will not leave states that wish to opt in another time to do so before the november election and voters will lose further confidence in the system candidates will leave on election night wondering if they can trust the results common cause wrote the security and reliability problems with electronic machines have been well documented both the state of california with the top to bottom review in the state of ohio with their study have documented numerous security vulnerabilities in these systems and taken action to protect both fields an additional minute i have to the gentleman i think the generally additionally a number of academic and public policy experts have recommended that the shortcomings of these systems be addressed finally there have been a number of incidents in which voters have been disenfranchised and election outcomes thrown into doubt because the machines have simply failed to work properly the brennan center for justice at the new york university school of law writes that reports of machine problems during state's recent presidential primary elections provide a preview of potentially widespread machine failure and disenfranchisement in november they and others go on to argue that this simple straightforward legislation will allow many counties and states around the country to address these problems in time for the november election so that we can have a truly reliable accessible and audit to bowl elect that voters can believe in i yield back the balance of my time with thanks to the gentle lady from california for her diligent work in putting together such a good piece of legislation i thank the gentleman i was there in the balance my time joan from michigan three minutes to general gentleman from ohio mr regular telephone from ohio it's recognized for three minutes taxpayers six hundred eighty five million dollars to reimburse jurisdictions for the costs of converting to voting systems that produce paper ballots manual audit's and hand recounts we have already provided the states with three point two billion dollars in grants to implement the help america vote including one hundred fifteen million appropriated in fiscal year two zero zero eight the administration of elections is a state and local responsibility many jurisdictions have already decided to change their election systems to require paper by ballots using their own resources this bill wouldn't each other jurisdictions to rush the implementation of new paper ballot systems for the november election in written testimony before the appropriations subcommittee the bipartisan election assistance  experience has taught election officials that a minimum of six to eight months and preferably longer is needed to effectively implement a new voting system and to educate the voting public about how to use the system consistency in procedures and process is key in creating a secure accurate and effective election as we have seen in ohio and in several other jurisdictions the hasty attaching of a printer to some machines has led to paper jams long lines and confusion while jurisdictions may find a voter very verified paper audit trail to be suitable for their needs hastily requiring such a thing for this year's election has the potential to lead more prone problems to lead to more problems than it could possibly solve at this point in the election cycle election officials are better served by sharpening their already existing policies than trying to apply patchwork fixes that could lead to greater problems and unquote this was from the election assistance commission which is a bipartisan group and i was only add this bill will not only put the country further in debt but it will encourage jurisdictions to implement new voting systems between the primaries and general election leading to additional election administration problems and i urge my colleagues to vote no on this legislative proposal you tell me a fact gentlewoman from california mr speaker points that the gentleman from ohio made the first is we don't in this legislation tell the counties how to run their elections we leave this up to them and it is entirely optional there are states around the country who have instituted complete audit to ball election systems in a matter of months if a county or a state feels they cannot do it then i would advise them not to opt into this program but we believe they can let's leave that to them rather than as the gentleman from ohio would try to decide for them whether this is something that they would want we believe from a number of indications that this will be useful in many counties and states around the country and i  my time to and from michigan the gentleman from new jersey is put into this effort i know it's a heartfelt effort on his part and in fact i first met his mother when we were both serving as the secretaries of state of our respective states west virginia and in missouri at the time and i just come here to say that the states have handled the responsibility of the panics of election administration well for a very long time the process of voting how you vote the mechanics of what the ballot looks like what do you have a straight ballot voting system all that have been left to the states and i think wisely so in the help among america vote act the congress provided states with over three billion dollars to modernize their voting systems including allowing the states to decide if they wanted to have a paper backup in my state the state of missouri the secretary of state determined that if that money was used there'd be no system authorized in our state unless to paper backup was part of that system as it turned out that was a very good decision but in the aftermath of the two thousand elections many states took that incentive that three billion dollars that was out there and in my view made decisions more quickly than they otherwise would have this bill now offers a second round of money that would be available to encourage changing their systems many of them that we know about today changing their systems from a system they just used federal money to change to i think this is neither wise nor the responsible thing for us to do i also very much think that this is there's no reason to rush this bill at this time there is not enough time left between now and the november election to change voting systems over thirty states have already conducted primary elections with the system they all use and november the very worst time to change a voting system is an election that has overwhelming participation as we believe this one will lection administration in the mechanics of election grew up in this country over deck aides and generations of voting and voting habits to try to change those habits from a primary election some time earlier in in the year to a new system to be really frankly tested the first time in probably the biggest election turnout that we have had or will have in a long time is just a mistake to think that we should pass this bill today for the november election i think exist far off base as we could be i'm not absolutely opposed to the federal government encouraging states to do better with their election process i am opposed to this feeling that we get into that creates in the end vironment where the states have to make these decisions more quickly than they should and particularly to make a decision like this just in advance of a hyper to suppression election i don't think the three point two billion dollars so called solution produce results in fact several states are now complaining that it produced problems but they're the ones that decided that they would deal with those problems those problems frankly become less significant every time voters use a system maybe you did make an investment that now you wish you didn't make but you made that investment it's not impossible to either reverse it on your own or decide you're going to make it work i think this is the wrong approach at the wrong time i encourage my colleagues to vote no on this bill today not to give up on working with our friend from new jersey to find a bill that would be helpful to the states but not to pass a bill today that would only create whole bill is optional for jurisdictions no one is required to opt in so no one would be rushed unless they wanted and felt they could take advantage of this legislation i would note also that several states have have undergone very rapid conversion i would note that governor crist in florida was a witness before the election subcommittee and house administration and he had the entire state of florida switch from the electronic machines to optical scan in really a matter of months so this really is a matter of intention if you want to do it and i would reserve my time as i'm still gentleman from michigan for yielding and i appreciate the privilege to address you here on the floor of the house with regard to integrity in the in the ballot system and i will say as a complement to mr holden i've had a number of conversations about the integrity and electoral process we share our concern that that the electoral process here in america have the highest level of integrity i for one sat actually sat in my chair for all but a couple of thirty seven days following the election the year two thousand watching television scooting around in surfing the internet chasing down the rabbit trails i was on the telephone at the time i was the chairman of the senate state government committee in iowa and i did what i would to become a florida and as i as i educated myself it was a crash course in the electoral process i found fraud in elections in a number of states at least a solid newspaper and a journalistic reports of fraud and i became convinced that it was scattered throughout this country and the pattern is hard to follow but the conclusion that i drew was if this country ever loses its faith in our electoral system this constitutional republic will collapse due to lack of faith in the people now so integrity in the electoral process is important and i would rather lose an election than i would then i would lose the integrity of our electoral process and i come to this point today to this floor to a point pose this bill however  this is tax day two thousand and eight election year two thousand and eight and i know we're watching the presidential debates unfold and soon we'll hear the congressional debates light up and to try to jump on this horse in the middle of this fast current a stream that we have racing towards an election i think is a bridge too far for us to be able to get there without further damaging the integrity rather than improving it and i would urge this house to step back take a look take a deep breath and come together with some legislation that would provide a course for a paper audit trail which i support but one that does so and a reason fashioned not in the middle of an election year not something that's designed to patch some of the flaws that came with the help america vote act but something that's well thought out something that's bipartisan something that's reasoned something that's cautious and something that will preserve the integrity of the electoral system that we have and that's why i come to the floor mr speaker for that purpose and i support the position taken by the ranking member from michigan and my colleagues although i intend to continue to work with mr holt to provide the kind of election and another point that i would make is that we do have a disagreement in in our viewpoint and that is that i think we should we should add a very last resort impose obligations on the states the states have run this he looked oral process the federal government has a minimal involvement and so my view is if the states have integrity we have to be very careful because the voters within the states will be deter mening the next leader in the free world i think the number was just five hundred twenty seven votes in florida made the difference on who the leaders are for real world was in the year two thousand that integrity is important we must hold it together but i urge no vote on committee the original halt they all before last easter easter of two thousand and seven and had been working with interested parties in across the aisle sense that time it's worth noting that these changes can happen responsibly and also quickly for example in lackawanna county pennsylvania they are they are going to switch from the ariz to optical scan in seven weeks before this primary and i would note that the legislature in iowa has voted i understand the vote was nearly unanimous to transition from d r ease to optical scan and that's going to be done before this november elections so i think that this measure would help a cities and counties who want to take those responsible steps and i would a yield to the author of the legislation mr holt an additional minute the chair will note that the gentleman from michigan has six and a half minutes remaining to gentlewoman from california has six minutes remaining chair recognizes gentleman from new jersey for lunch you mr speaker under this legislation the states and counties still have the responsibility for the mechanics of the elections all we're saying is if they put in place procedures to make them audit to bowl and procedures to audit the votes we will  just there are many things the gentleman from iowa iowa said we could be dealing with and indeed we are not dealing with questions of registration and purging of names on registration lists and absentee voting and the openness of the tabulation phase of results we're just talking about what happened in the voting booth so that each voter will be able to verify on paper that her vote or his vote is recorded the way they intend and then those voter verified records be used to audit the results it's that simple and i can promise you that if jurisdictions don't take these steps there will be many questions around the country that cannot be resolved this is a simple straightforward way to take care of it i was there to bounce my two children reserves say my colleagues there's nothing more important in the integrity of the election process in the united states and confidence that all americans would have them are making certain our system of election is secure about how let me tell you this is the compound being error and mistake congress made and here it is on tax day two thousand and eight that we're going to commit another two thirds of a billion all or mistake i said on house ministration that oversees elections there in two thousand when we had the problems in florida with the hanging chads we've all heard of the hanging chads and everybody rushed here and every votes got a count we've got to spend taxpayer money and make sure that every vote is counted and we're going to put in a system and we have to make it look like we're doing something to make certain that system secure now we listen to the witnesses and they came before administration and they told folks that electronic voting system which would cost billions of dollars to implement would have the possibility of error and just about the same percentage of errors if we use a lever if you use a hanging chad ballot if you use optical scan that you use a paper ballot and you can mess up any of those elections they told us and then everybody rushed down they voted it out of committee we passed it we spent two or three but hints dollars to put in place a system that they told us well somebody can pull a plug the electronic thing doesn't work somebody can come up with some sort of electronic device even one of these might set it off and you might get some results they told us there might be errors and they told us they didn't have a paper trail so here we are putting in place the system on tax day spend another two thirds of a million dollars keep work it out there americans send it here because well spend it in some dumb fashion and this follows that now we do want the system to work but there are errors and everything you heard him talking about the scale and i went down and said all night and watch the scale and voted it's simple you just take a pen and you you fill in that space my god i couldn't believe hundreds of people they put x s all the way around they circle optical sca which now are coming to correct but they still have the same rate of error i guess it never stops around here but here we are again spending that money on another whim but well we'll do gentlewoman from california mr chairman i just want to make a couple of comments in the last several years the united states has spent at least two hundred forty million dollars to make sure that democratic elections in other countries met the same standards that were hoping elections will be held to here and so obviously every dollar that we have is precious tax body but i hope that we would be at least as interested in protecting the integrity of the elections in america as we are in protecting the integrity of the elections in pakistan afghanistan and the like force and we reached a conclusion it was unanimous and it was bipartisan and i don't second guess the rest we had g a o go in and they gave us a report and we accepted that report but had there been a paper trail we would have had to have the g a o go in and examine these machines and i would finally note that the gentleman is right if you can mess it up it will be messed up but at least with a paper ballot you can discern intent and if somebody circles the name instead of fills it in and there is a recount you can see what a voter meant to do you cannot see that with an electronic machine so with that i hope that we are able i understand  points being made but i would hope that we can come together and support this bipartisan bill and i reserve the balance of my time chillingly research gentleman from michigan thirty seconds to the german from florida i just like it the gentleman just want i didn't get a chance to say this but there is a quote that i think should be part of the rector record and the quote is an unformed built electorate is the cornerstone of democracy in a legit educated electorate and that's what we need to do and they make errors they don't just the folks make errors they just don't circle one and it's very clear they circle the house and i'd love to bring the ballots here some time off to do that to show you how people can mess it up but an informed electorate is the cornerstone a democracy and yes we need to do all we can to make certain that they are provided with all the assistance from the federal level to make certain that we have it exactly right open honest election thank you  california we don't have additional speakers i wonder if the gentleman has additional speakers laws from some years ago in which you come in and when there is a debate on the subject the more of the people know the longer the debate and i suspect we can go on considerably longer if we have more of the members of congress here simply because all of us have experience with elections i would like to point out of a few first of all the comments about the integrity of the system i agree totally the objective should be the complete integrity of the system to ensure that every vote i counted accurately and that every voter can be assured that their vote is not canceled out by someone who has deliberately voted the wrong way in other words through fraud or  mistakes by the machine i believe that the audits that mr holder has proposed are very important and should be developed it should be developed with the help of the secretaries of state and the local election  someone to my surprise in the case that they opposed this and urged members of the congress to vote against it but i do want to say just looking at this from the historical perspective and as an older person i've been around a while i've seen a lot of different elections because their early history of the country all delving was by with paper but because there was too much opportunity for fraud or miscounting machines were developed the monsters as they call them the lever machines and those were used for years even though their error rate was also fairly high and then we've gone to other methods over the years now we're using high tech approaches with computers and have encountered some difficulties i'm not saying you can't make a perfect machine i'm saying that as long as people are involved in operating them they're likely to be mistakes and one of my classics that i remember is from a presidential election in two thousand and four when in los angeles county there haven't been something like nine candidates for president listed on the ballot this is an optical scan ballot over thirty six hundred voters circled the square or crosses the oval for candidates other than president bush and left as blank now as one to interpret that they all vote thought they should leave it blank for the person they wanted to vote for or were they saying anyone but a president who knows as long as those types of mistakes are possible they will be made we have to do our best here to work diligently with and i emphasize working with time gentleman from california mr speaker i urge that we pass this important legislation today i will confess that i am disappointed that the ranking member is not today in support of this measure we in the majority side excepted every amendment offered by republicans in the committee markup on this bill and i had hoped and expected that we would be able to continue to work together and support this measure on the floor we reported the original hope bill out of the committee over one year ago and in that time we between now and then we have worked with secretaries of state the national association of counties disability rights groups voting rights groups civil rights groups to try and get a measure that could garner broad support across the country and i believe that we have that measure before us today i will say that the that the white house issuing s a p today a year's work i think is really bad faith we have worked very hard and to come out at the last minute is really very unprofessional our finally like to say that the dollar amount estimated by the congressional budget office is a worst case scenario there's no way that that would be the full amount but even if it were i would ask members to think of this isn't the american democracy worth as much as the iraqi or the pakistani democracy are we willing to spend as much to make sure that  precious american votes are counted as we are the votes of foreigners in other countries i would hope that as we consider our responsibility as members of congress to our wonderful america and our wonderful country that the answer to that would be yes and therefore a yes on the hold bill there been various quotes made today but i think back of the second californian to ever be president the united states his phrase was not used about voting but it was this trust but verify that's what the whole bill would do it would trust but verify and i hope that members today can come together and support the whole bill i would like to commend once again congress and hold for his enormous efforts that brought us here today and with that i would yield back the balance of my time all time is expired the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h r fifty thirty six as amended those opposed say no in the opinion of the chair two thirds being in the affirmative gentleman from michigan proceedings on this motion will be postpone four ninety three a bill to provide that the usual day for paying salaries in or under the house of representatives may be established by regulations of the committee on house administration pursuant to the rule the gentleman from pennsylvania administration the house of representatives currently pay currently paid to stay if once a month the executive branch the senate most private companies pay their employees twice a month or every two weeks we are considering a change because once a month pay can be difficult for budging on a tight paycheck in addition to committees oversight experience with payroll software suggested adopting work common approach will save money reduce service and increase efficiency unfortunately the committee can change the pay schedule for house the effort that we change the law this bill will give the committee the authority to change the date of staffers are paid it won't change the pay schedule right away this bill is an act of the committee will that regulations that change that regulation that change the pay cycle and i like to thank my to determine the house's pay date i do not necessarily support alteration of the current house pay schedule at this time along with the obvious administrative challenges that would impact the c e o there are a number of cultural implications within the house population that must be addressed prior to making such a change many employees pay their mortgages you were dealt a utility bills and other financial obligations in concert with the monthly pay schedule to change a system that has been in place for such an expanded extended period of time will have a pervasive impact and must be considered and communicated thoroughly before this incident this bill is a first step on a very long road and should should be followed by hearings and surveys to allow house employees to express their opinions however i fully support efforts of chairman brady to ensure that the committee takes a decisive role in determining house suspend the rules and pass h r fifty four ninety three those in favor say i suppose say no in the opinion of the chair two thirds being in the affirmative the rules are suspended the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table  from pennsylvania mr speaker the suspend the rules will agree on house resolution ten sixty eight as amended the clerk will report the title of the rest of the ocean house resolution ten sixty eight resolution permitting active duty members of the armed forces who are assigned to a congressional liaison office of the department of defense or the house of representatives to attain membership in the exercise distillery and stablished for employees of the house of representatives pursuant to the rule the gentleman from pennsylvania mr brady and the gentleman from michigan mr taylor each will control twenty minutes the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania military and the sisters daily in the house of representatives they have just a simple favor to ask that they be allowed to use the house they have jim says they work here far away from the ordinary military fitness facilities in order to assure that is military liaison scan maintain military policy and to the extent possible during off peak hours it was again like to thank my friend the colleague the general from michigan mr ellis for co sponsoring this resolution and i reserve the balance of my time gentleman reserves gentleman from michigan fitness center the center is going to welcome benefit to many house employ since it opened in december two thousand and five located in the southwest corner of the rayburn building the fitness center covers eleven thousand square feet in w members can take advantage of health screenings and test fitness assessments take part in health wellness workshops and seminars receive individualize individual exercise programs in addition to the state of the art exercise equipment well membership in the house staff fitness center will prove it convenient and useful operation to those military personnel who work in the house campus i think it's also important to recognize that these gentlemen and women are part of the pennsylvania you're back the balance of my time telling us back all the time is expired the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution ten sixty eight as amended those in favor say i suppose they know the opinion of the chair two thirds being in the affirmative the rules are suspended the resolution is agreed to and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table without objection the title is amended baylor university college of medicine in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight over the last half century he has created a number of medical devices techniques and procedures that have saved countless lives he's perhaps best known for his efforts and kind of asking surgery as he was one of the first physicians to ever perform corner artery bypass surgery additionally michael de bakey is credited with developing the concept for the mobile army surgical hospital his students across the globe worked together to establish the michael debakey international surgical society and his honor dr de bakey has received numerous awards for his work including the presidential medal of freedom with distinction national medal of science as well as awards from the american medical association the american heart association and the academy's shoji research we are honored to what drives the use of the capital with on the to present dr debakey with the congressional gold medal and again i thank the gentleman from michigan for his support mr speaker i was drawing my reservation of objection without objection the concurrent resolution is agreed to and the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table mr speaker  resolution eleven zero to resolve that upon the adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the house the bill h r fifty seven nineteen to amend the internal revenue code of one hundred eighty six to conform return prepare a penalty standards delay implementation of withholding taxes on government contractors and hand taxpayer protection and assist low income tax payers and for other purposes all points  against consideration of the bill or waived except those arising under clause nine or ten a rule twenty one the men in the nature of a substitute recommended by the committee on ways and means now printed in the bill shall be considered as adopted  amended shall be considered as read all points of order against provisions of the bill are as amended our way to the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill as amended to final passage without intervening motion except one one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the committee on ways and means and two one motion to recommit with or without instruction section two during consideration of h r fifty seven nineteen for sewin to this resolution not withstanding the operation of the previous question the chair may postpone further consideration of the bill to such time as may be designated by the speaker gentlewoman from ohio is recognized for one hour for the purpose of debate only i yield the customary thirty minutes to the gentleman from texas mr sessions alltime yielded during consideration of the roll is for debate only recognized mr speaker a threat to leaven o to provide for consideration of h r fifty seven nineteen the taxpayer assistance and simplification act of two thousand and eight under a clo the role provides for one hour of debate on the bill controlled by the committee on ways and means mr speaker today april fifteenth is tax day which has long been a source of stress and anxiety for many working families however today we will bring good news we will consider legislation that will alleviate many of the tax related difficulties americans face today and throughout the year this legislation will streamline the tax filing process for individuals and businesses as well as improve i r s customer service and strengthen privacy protection the taxpayer assistance and well if occasion act is also fully paid for by ensuring funds from tax advantages advantaged health savings accounts which will be used for qualified health care expenses and by temporarily delaying a withholding requirement on government payment to contractors it also contains provisions to strengthen the integrity of the tax code making it simpler and fairer for all americans eliminates incentives for u s companies to outsource work by ensuring they cannot escape paying employment taxes and government workers in addition this legislation will also prevent thousands of elderly and disabled individuals from owing employment taxes for in home care workers provided through state and local government programs this legislation also improves iras service and outreach to low income taxpayers in several ways first it allows i r s employees to refer taxpayers requiring assistance with tax cases to qualified low income tax payer clinics it also requires that the i r s notify tax payers of their potential eligibility for the earned income tax credit which has been the largest need based anti poverty program and the united states lifting millions of americans out of poverty every single year g a o estimates that in two thousand and four americans failed to claim eight billion dollars and earned income tax credit hundreds of millions of dollars in my home state of ohio alone these credits have the potential to help strengthen families and their financial security while also benefiting our communities at large by stimulating local economic development and job growth and then order to ensure that eligible families can continue to take advantage of the earned income tax credit this legislation authorizes an annual ten million dollar grant to volunteer income tax assistance services make it unnecessary for working families to turn to high cost tax preparers and unscrupulous organizations engaging in predatory practices like offering what is called refund anticipation loans the taxpayer assistance and simplification act also includes several provisions to strengthen privacy protections and government accountability importantly it prohibits the i r s from providing individual taxpayer information to private entities employing predatory loan tactics and it requires the i r s to notify taxpayers suspected identity theft and fraud it also takes the important step of repealing the authority of the i r s to contract with private debt collection agencies mr speaker there is no duty more central to the functioning of the federal government than the collection of its revenue but under the bush administration this inherently governmental governmental responsibility has been farmed out to private collectors who keep up to twenty five percent of the tax through the revenues they collect the program has caused confusion and aggravation for many taxpayers because these private debt collectors frequently demand sensitive personal information without revealing the nature of their phone calls as was documented in the ways and means committee hearing last year in addition the operations of private contractors are not held to the sane standard of transparency as required of the federal government there is a danger that sensitive personal information could be compromised through careless handling of these cases without accountability the taxpayer advocate service has recorded over fifteen hundred complaints related to this program and not only are there serious privacy and service issues but the promised cost savings of the private debt collection program have simply not materialized one needs to look no further than a headline on the front page of today's washington post that proclaims quote collectors c more than they raise and quote private debt collectors are also less efficient than the i r s as the i r s taxpayer advocate service points out the department of the treasury estimates that private collection agencies collect four dollars for every dollar it invests in tax collection efforts but every dollar invested in i r s collections yields five times that amount the downside of continuing to outsource the duties of the internal revenue service clearly outweigh any benefits it's just another disturbing example of a core governmental function being outsourced to private contractors was sub par results and a lack of transparency and accountability it is a waste of taxpayer resources and it's about time that we eliminated the i r s this authority to outsource this government responsibility checks pay or assistance and simplification act improves government accountability and make the tax code simpler and fairer for all americans and i urge my colleagues to support this role and the underlying legislation i a new rule a new record for the united states congress and i oppose also the underlying legislation which would have been passed by this house in a bipartisan fashion without the inclusion of two partisan and controversial measures the congressional record outlining the ministrations oppositions to these two provisions the first part is in prison because provision unnecessarily included by our friends the democrats and this otherwise non controversial measure would require all h s a account holders to verify independently the qualified nature of medical expenses for all withdrawals subject to those transactions not substantial aided to income taxes in theory it is extremely important to make sure that health savings accounts are being used for qualified medical expenses and not for every day use unfortunately this language takes the reporting process way too far and risks discouraging health savings accounts enrollment limiting patient choice and further burdening our banks and financial organizations with implementing the substantial requirements the current system requires that non qualified referrals withdrawals from an health savings account are subject to individual income taxes as well as a ten percent penalty if the internal revenue service is not enforcing these penalties it should be and would make sense that congress would take the necessary steps to ensure the appropriate audit take place our constituents health and our nation's financial institutions should not suffer from the federal government's inefficiency the joint committee on taxation has said that this provision would save money but though they are unable to determine how much savings would result from the newly captured penalties and taxes that make h s a s health savings accounts less attractive consumers in turn give mean them less health care choices i might add that  a s are there to provide consumers that do not have the tax advantages that corporate employees have it gives employees health care on a pretax basis and is very important to families across this country but consumers are not the only ones who would suffer introducing a new step of independent substantiation would increase costs for banks and account administrator should that happen it is very possible that they will pass on these costs to employees and ultimately consumers over the past several weeks democrats have loudly complained about the charges with banks and other commercial lend institutions passed on to their customers yet provisions allow for the possibility of increasing those costs further when it now applies to an h s a i think members of this body should be opposed to that the other controversial and partisan provisions included in this legislation would revoke the internal revenue sources of sir mrs authority to contract out collection authority for those small accounts that in the private sector would often be referred to as old and cold in two thousand and four congress gave the i r s the ability to utilize the best practices and advantages created by the private sector to aggress its addresses growing backlog of unpaid debt today it is estimated that three hundred and forty five billion dollars of these unpaid taxes exist meaning that every year the average taxpayer who plays by the rules must pay an extra twenty seven hundred dollars is to cover the taxes not paid for by these people who are not pain that this new practice which will began as a small pilot program that as it grows will succeed is estimated to bring in approximately two point two billion dollars in the first ten years alone and under this agreement the iris would get the first twenty five cents of every dollar to hire new collections professional a provision that will have a positive compound effect by helping to bring in even greater amounts of this uncollected revenue for the government in the future the program even it's even in its beginning stages and despite numerous attempts by the democrat majority kill it before it could succeed has been huge delay successful bringing in over thirty million dollars worth of uncollected taxes mr speaker that means that thirty million dollars worth of taxes that the i r s chose not to collect has been brought in as a result of what these outside collectors have done it has received a ninety eight percent rating from the i r s for regulatory and procedural accuracy as well as a hundred percent rating for professional additionally less than one percent of the tax payers contacted by these private agencies have filed complaints with the i r s not one of which has been validated despite this program's track record of success on behalf of taxpayers who play by the rules and pay their designated share not to mention the increased revenues that it brings in to fund the democrats other new big spending legislation there are many opponents on the other side of the aisle that want to prevent it from continued work supposedly to protect the a big government union boss us they have claimed by despite the fact that forty out of the fifty states in america already contract out their services that this is something that only the government can do you don't have to take my word for it for it to be just for it to be said that this isn't true even the nonpartisan government accounting office found that the i r s made benefit from using private collectors and it's reasonable to assume that the s could learn how their best practices as relates to resolve longstanding problems with debt collectors could be achieved as well on july in july of two thousand and seven over fifty one thousand six hundred and sixty seven cold cases that the i r s was incapable of collecting were given to private agencies resulting in over five thousand three hundred full repayments to the treasury and almost two thousand full agreements to repay these debts incrementally this means that the government received over twenty four million dollars of gross revenue that it would not have otherwise received which was about one eighth of when what it cost for these non existing services to be paid for in fact the i r s has publicly stated no government employee will lose his or her job as a result of this highly efficient private contracting instead the our wrists will benefit from the opportunity to focus their talent expertise and resources on higher priority more complex cases last night in the most closed congress in history rules committee our freedom in mint coauthored by my friend congressman kevin brady of texas to strike this unfortunate provision which was unsurprisingly defeated by the democrat majority along party lines i encourage all of my colleagues to vote against this closed rule and the underlying legislation that includes these two provisions mr speaker i reserve the balance of my time telling reserves gentlewoman from ohio thank you mr speaker before before yield i'd just like to clarify the record some of the things that have been presented but the national taxpayer advocate who is appointed by the treasury secretary reported to congress that quote the money spent on the i r s private debt collection initiative is and in  of government dollars and quote the chief of the national taxpayer advocate advocate service testified that the i r s employees bring in twenty dollars for every dollar i r s spend whereas private debt speaker i rise to support the rule of the underlying legislation to taxpayers distance and simplification act is an important step toward a more straightforward and just tax system i commend chairman rangle for his tireless leadership among other things as will allow i r s employees to refer taxpayers needing assistance to qualify low income taxpayer clinics boost outreach supporting the earning come tax credit for so many families facing such great income and security during these difficult times the i t c is a powerful initiative whose benefits reach our entire economy in particular i want to recognize representative ellsworth and highlight this bill's fair tax provision rooted in our belief that no one no one should receive special privileges under our tax system after all what does it say about our nation and our priorities when american companies like kellogg brown and root by far the largest contractor in iraq are allowed to take their department of defense dollars and filter them through offshore shell companies in order to avoid paying significant social security and medicare taxes and it is my understanding that there are no other contractors in iraq who are doing this k b r which receives a no bid contract to rebuild iraq's oil infrastructure and provide logistical support to the military employees roughly fourteen thousand americans in iraq and nearly all of them approximately ten thousand five hundred i listed as employees of two cayman islands shell companies contracted by k b r solely to avoid paying payroll taxes for those workers and that means big cost savings passed on to a defense department that is contracted to reimburse k b r for all its labor costs long guaranteeing a profit a defense department that has more more than ready to look the other way as long as the bottom line works out in its favor indeed the department knew k b r was shirking its responsibilities since two thousand and four yet they took no action this kind of set up may mean a smaller price tag on any particular contract but the long term cost of the government and the taxpayer are far greater eight hundred forty six million dollars over ten years according to the joint committee on taxation and the only one who really wins in the end is the company who gets the contract thanks to its on fair competitive advantage mr speaker these practices must end this bill amends current law to treat foreign subsidiaries of u s companies under contract with the us government as american employers and it changes the degree of common ownership to fifty percent ensuring that more companies all in taxes are subject to the new law and greater transparency it is unacceptable for the department of dependent defense to pay for this war by doing business with a company from its own workers and its own government undermining the social security and the medicare trust funds in the process one tax dodgers try to avoid their responsibility the american taxpayer suffers this company should not be allowed to shirk their responsibilities and then be able to reap the rewards of a very large federal contract it is wrong it should s has a lot of work to do and then as accounts become older because they don't get to those and they become two three four five years old but they're still this country they are our ass now or at least we're led to believe this would go collect that money when they hadn't done it their first five years mr speaker it's not true they will not go collect these accounts they are old and the point is it's still a debt that is of you to the united states government and that's where these private collectors come in private collectors that collect for at least forty out of fifty states private collectors that have a one hundred percent writing mr speaker what we're trying to say is that the i r s probably does do a good job with what it does do but when it has not handled on the can it is unwise and bad for the taxpayer not to receive that money that is due from its services and from the taxes that took place and that's what these collectors are all about to say that they're not as efficient an outside collector as an i r s collector is silly because these cases are ones the i r s didn't want to handle in the first place mr figured this time i like your four minutes to the g today is april fifteenth and once again america americans from all across this land and from all walks of life must fork over their hard earned income to the our s and so to ease the burden of the tax payer the house democratic leadership on that closure to no opportunity for amendment brings up this so call taxpayer assistance and simplification act however misspeak or anyone who takes a good hard look at the language in the bill they might not think today is april fifth think but rather april fools day and that this legislation should really be titled the tax evader assistance and simplification act for example this legislation will provide assistance to those who just don't feel like paying their taxes by a limiting a successful debt collection program that my friend from texas just mentioned instead of lowering taxes for hardworking americans  over half a billion dollars this majority would rather give a tax break to these tax evaders to the tune mr speaker of about six hundred million dollars and unfortunately to pay for these tax evader protections this bill targets what health savings accounts and the millions of americans who try to take control of their own health care decisions this legislation will cost those americans who you use h s a s as my children do nearly five hundred million dollars it effectively works to destroy market based solutions in order to force government run health care down the throats of the american people the speaker i mentioned earlier that this bill makes today seem more like april fools day well that monica already belongs to april the first so perhaps we can just call today thank you can gresham ill democrat day i would say to the american people if they are happy that this congress today will basically give away six hundred million dollars to tax evaders bank a congressional democrat if they are happy with the fact that this congress has done nothing to repeal the deplorable death that sank a congressional democrat if they were happy that th is congress has refused time after time to extend the tax cuts of two thousand and one and two thousand and three when our carney needs it most sign a congressional democrats if they are happy with that this congress has put to st years passed budgets that included the largest tax increase in united states history thank you a congressional democrat and if i look forward to the prospect of writing an even bigger check with our wrist next year than they did this year well you guessed it that you can buy a congressional democrat mr speaker i again ask all my colleagues democrat and republican opposes rules so this bill can be amended to provide real forward with this legislation i was a former small business owner and i understand the real costs of health care health insurance increasing year after year and it's my understanding that the health savings account provision is not going to increase the burden on employers the bill does not intend for employers to be subject to any additional burdens or obligations and what it simply does is it closes the tax gap for the choir in h s a trustees to report amounts paid to individuals that are not identified with medical expenses furthermore we're going to be asking the g a o to study the uses of distribution from the h s a so i'm really pleased to know that we're ensuring that this provision does not neg didley impact our business what's happening and what i'd like to tell her is that a number of companies including the national association for self employed national association of health underwriters national association of manufacturers national restaurant association national retail federation national taxpayer union principal financial group retail industry leaders association financial roundtable the h s a council united health care u s chamber wellpoint these people that employ people that utilize the h s a are all saying it will be have negative impact upon the use of h s a as making it easier for individuals to get and have minutes let me just make the observation that today is tax day and effectively what we're doing to the american taxpayers is making them jump through more hoops and certainly if they have an h s a and the cost of this program are projected to be about a half a billion dollars a year what we're going to be doing what we're doing in bringing this bill to the floor is a knack to unburden some bureaucratic regulations that are going to undermine those health savings accounts which have been proven successful at slowing the growth of health costs and cutting insurance premiums for millions of individuals and small businesses now my colleagues just leave listed all the business groups that are opposed to this legislation the question i guess i have is last year we had our last session we had a largely bipartisan bill the republicans put forward with democratic support four hundred  seventy seven it passed but now we have this provision dropped into this bill that cripples health savings accounts now i know we have a philosophical difference of opinion on whether we want to keep health care private and had do it through the marketplace or whether we have want to have a government nationalization and takeover of health care what i'm sharing with you is if you cripple h s a's in this way i guess you do build momentum for a government takeover of health care but that is not going to make savings for the americans consumers h s a's are effective in reducing costs for the consumer and i've got to tell you these new burdens are unnecessary they're inefficient they're inconsistent with the flexibility purposely afforded h s h at their inception these provisions undermine efforts by employers and individuals and insurers to reduce him reduce health care costs and improve health outcomes how is it possible that we're going to consider a program here where it will take longer to receive reimbursements and will require individuals to come up with money out of their own park and potentially hundreds of dollars on occasion a thousand dollars or so at one time under this new proposal i just think that this new step of independent substantiation which frankly helps only one company or very limited number of companies who offer such systems such bureaucratic systems and imposes costs on all the rest this is going to increase the costs for the banks for the count administrators for the individual who uses them and it's going to be passed on to the consumers so we do complain about the charges which banks and other commercial lending institutions pass on to their customers but why have this present provision that's going to increase those costs on the consumer this does not make sense health savings accounts were created to reduce the growth of health care costs and they've achieved some noteworthy successes but this bill is going to lead to increased health care costs for individuals by crippling h s a don't taxpayers have enough to worry about on tax day i urge my colleagues to vote against this rule so we can fix this bill and provide a little relief to hard working americans on april fifteenth and i yield back the balance of my time telling you a fact gentleman from ohio mr speaker at this time not yield five minutes to the distinguished gentleman from georgia mr scott elements recognized for five minutes thank you very much i appreciate that this is an important bill timely bill this is a bill that is due as a gift to the american people on this day which is referred to as tax day april fifteenth the miss the speaker this bill simplifies the tax code it also deals with anti harassment it also deals with making sure that companies who do business in foreign lands are not using offshore accounts as scams to avoid paying their fair tariffs taxes and most importantly mr speaker it deals that the simplification of the code and applies that to those people who need it the most because so many people mr speaker are not even getting the advantages and getting their due from paying the taxes because of the fact that our tax code is so complicated it's so complex and this bill streamlines that i let me take just a few minutes to go through some very salient point the government accounting office estimates that americans over paid their taxes by over one billion dollars a year because they fail to claim deductions this bill deals with that about a quarter of americans who are eligible for the earned income tax credit fail to claim that due to it complexity but what this bill does and speaker is it makes the tax code simpler and fair it strengthens the i r s as outreach program to make sure that people know that they are entitled to the tax refunds and to payments earn under the earned income tax credit as i mentioned there twenty five percent of households who are eligible for the earned income tax credit in one thousand nine hundred ninety did not even claim it and working americans may have lost out on approximately eight billion dollars this bill corrects that and one of the most important measures of this bill mr speaker is that the american people are tired of the harassment they're tired of the phone calls the abuse by these private collectors and which jobs are outsourced by the i r s to go collect the federal debt we have talked with the personal financial information of our american people is too precious is too confidential to be in the hands of private contractors on the outside and just very quickly mr speaker we have foreign companies like k b r that are working and having millions of dollars of contracts servicing in iraq but they are out they are using offshore accounts to hide that money to make sure that they do not have to pay the important taxes that go to medicaid and to medicare not only not playing their fair share mrs speaker no hundreds of millions of dollars but not even allowing their employees to qualify for medicare and for social security this bill corrects that and another important area mr speaker is the new taxpayer protections against the damage he and theft and tax fraud it cracks down on misleading websites that seek to get personal information by using their website and imitating and pretending that they are the i r s a mr speaker the american people are certainly fed up with being abused by these private collectors being abused by these websites who are posing themselves as i r s agents a very important measure i support this rule going forward so this very important bill giving the taxpayers a due recognition making the tax code simpler and making sure it is fair for all a good bill i support this rule without an income tax states like florida under the republican leadership congress allowed states to once again allow their residents to be docked the state sales tax from their federal income tax just as other states are able to deduct their state income tax my colleagues and i have repeatedly asked the chairman of ways and means committee to extend the deduction but we've repeatedly been ignored as we all know providing tax relief is a very important and effective way to stimulate our economy yet the majority is choosing to pass a tax increase on to floridians and residents of other states that only have a state sales tax florida has the second highest foreclosure rate in america and this ladies and gentlemen would increase taxes on people already stressing to pay their mortgage payments and today being april fifteenth obviously to rush down to the post office to pay their federal income tax the taxpayer assistance and simplification act will not assist the average taxpayer nor simplify their tax burden even though the bill is being convinced that's being considered today i is being considered today i haven't had a single constituent contact me in support of this measure i have however had some pretty upset constituents come in about the fact that this is going to be the last year that they can deduct the sales tax on their federal income tax instead of heading day requests the majority is passing this bill under a closed rule disallowing members to help our cash strapped constituents the majority should really be ashamed of what they are doing today and i  minutes to the distinguished gentleman from indiana mr ellsworth john from indiana is record nice the two minutes thank you mr speaker i thank the gentle lady for recognizing me and yielding mr speaker i rise today in support of the taxpayer assistance and simplification act that is before us today as everyone knows it's april fifteenth tax day no one likes paying taxes but what folks really hate is when they have to pay more because bad actors are gaming the system and not paying their fair share in fact recent reports of boston closed globe have shown that some government contractors have been using offshore cayman island places tax havens to avoid paying their payroll taxes that they own a few weeks ago i introduced a fair share act put a stop to this abuse and i'm proud to have this legislation include as part of today's important bill my constituents back in the eighth district of indiana don't want to pay even more taxes to shore up programs like social security and medicare because companies who receive billions of dollars from this very government are exploited tax system today i urge my colleagues port this bill and send a strong message that congress is not going to stand by and let contractors cheat their workers cheat the government or the american taxpayers thank you and i yield back the balance of my top kill means bag gentleman from texas thank misspeak over serve our time gentleman reserves this time gentleman from ohio mr speaker i would inquire at the gentleman from texas if he has any remaining speakers i appreciate the gentlewoman asking at this time i do not have the need to show speakers other than my close gentlewoman from ohio mr speaker on the last acutely aware today is tax day or the final day for individuals and families to file to says without incurred incurring financial penalties this is not to be confused with tax freedom day which the tax freedom foundation has defined as the day on which the average american has finally earned enough money to pay this year's tax obligations at the federal state and local level which won't arrive this year in till next week april the twenty third and recognition of these two important days on every taxpayer calendar today i will be asking each of my colleagues to vote no on the previous question to this rule if this previous question is defeated i will i'm in the rule to make in order for the house to consider h r twenty seven thirty four a bill offered by my friend the gentleman from michigan congressman tim waltz this legislation repeal is the sunset date of the two thousand and one economic growth and tax relief reconciliation act and make the tax reductions inactive by that act permanent let me say that again in regular english that means that we will make the tax cuts permanent to make sure that all these hard working taxpayers that we're talking about won't have to pay an increase of taxes because the new democrat majority wants tax increases for every single taxpayer in this country today is not for to unity where we can make those tax cuts permanent to make sure that our tax code encourages not only employers but employees and to grow our economy it also repeals determination dates for provisions of the two thousand and three jobs and growth tax reference relief reconciliation act of two thousand and three thereby reducing income taxes on rates on dividends and capital gains it amends the risk code to make permanent the tax deduction for state and local taxes the tax deduction for tuitions and related expenses the increased expenses allowed for small business assets and related provisions and the tax credit for increasing research activities in summary i could just say this that what it will do is to maintain him in a time of uncertainty the ability for america to continue to grow jobs which means that america can compete globally on the other hand if you're for tax increases if you want to tax tax payers much more just simply but with a democrat majority finally it expresses the sense of the house of representatives and the committee o ways and means that they should report legislation on or before the end of the year to simplify the federal income tax system mr speaker i can think of a no more fitting action for congress jeering that week between tax day and tax freedom day to provide this kind of certainty to the american taxpayer by voting no on the previous questions members will not be voting to kill or delay this debt relief legislation they will simply be voting to provide tax relief to americans as they provide debt relief the same day to the world's poorest countries and i encourage all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote no on the previous question mr speaker on behalf of taxpayers who want to continue economic growth in america i say let's vote to make the tax cuts permanent i yield back the balance of my time t gentleman from ohio mr speaker the taxpayer assistance and simplification act of two thousand and eight is a strong no taxpayer bill that adopts legislative recommendations and tackles many of the most serious problems detailed in the national taxpayer advocates report to congress and this weakening economy america's working families will face many challenges in the months ahead and we in congress need to do what we can to help this legislation will streamline the tax filing process and he's the burden of tax law compliance it will ensure that we are good stewards of taxpayer funds  unnecessary and wasteful programs that compromise the integrity of our governmental functions and it makes the tax code simpler and fairer by eliminating unduly burdensome compliance requirements and providing commonsense solutions i'm proud mr speaker to support this legislation because it makes the need of working americans a priority mr speaker i offer an amendment to the r when considered as adopted under the first section of this resolution shall be modified as specified in section four section four the modification referred to in section three is as follows on page twenty one line twenty six insert as related to account beneficiary substantiation requirements after flexible spending range mn and at the end the following news section section twenty g a o study on health savings accounts and in general the comptroller general of the united states shall conduct a study of the use distributions from health savings account the mission of report not later than one year after the committee on ways and means of the house of representatives and the committee on find finance of the senate mr speaker the previous question on the amendment and on the resolution this fifteen minutes vote on ordering the previous question will be followed by five minute vote on agreeing to the amendment to the house resolution eleven zero two four to adopting house resolution eleven zero two  and suspending the rules with respect to h r fifty thirty six this is a fifteen minute vote has spent the last hour or so debating h r fifty seven one thousand the rule for h r fifty seven one team which repealed the i r s authority to use private companies to collect back taxes republicans calling on the house  force base the plane bearing pope benedict the sixteenth and his party is arriving at andrews air force base let's watch some of the audience the crowd at andrews air force base just outside of washington d c it's on the progress of the pope's plane land there president bush will welcome the pope shortly we hope to have that my plea was well here at andrews on this april if you're just joining us the first of fifteen minute vote couple of votes here on the house floor we're also watching andrews air force base pope benedict the sixteenth plane has arrived and landed will taxi to the welcoming area and we hope to show you the arrival  by president bush as well during this series of votes the pontiff will meet with president bush tomorrow officially at the white house some nine thousand guests are expected on the on the south lawn of the white house  white house also says according to the associated press today president bush has scheduled a rose garden speech for tomorrow to make an announcement about climate change also today on capitol hill the for the farm bill is up in the air ho senate conferees working on the farm bill congress now reports that conferees sparred over spending and taxes this morning before adjourning for the day with the chairman of the tax writing panels huddling separately offstage to try and resolve the funding issue that threatens the bill's prospects here on the house floor this is a previous question vote they had been debating h r fifty seven nineteen the rule for the taxpayer assistance bill this is a bill that repeals the irises authority to use private company companies to collect back taxes and this is a previous question voted last chance to change the rules before final passage and we're also looking at andrews air force base that is an alitalia airline we are told a special jet for the pope he will  taxi and president bush and the greeting party there the president also meeting with the pope tomorrow as we mentioned a few moments ago president bush pope benedict the sixteenth will say at least three masses while he's in the united states in washington  if you're just tuning in a couple of things going on a boat on the house floor obviously in the right of your screen you're seeing the alitalia jetliner bearing pope benedict the sixteenth arriving for his first official visit to the united states as pope touching down at andrews air force base just a few minutes ago president bush and the first lady are there among thousands there at andrews air force base to great pope benedict the sixteenth and they'll also have an official welcoming ceremony tomorrow on the south lawn at the white house followed that evening tomorrow evening by a a dinner in honor of pope benedict although he will not be at that dinner the dinner is in honor of pope benedict he has made with care catholic leaders  that evening tomorrow night's dinner will include a number of members of congress there are some one hundred fifty seven roman catholic members of congress according to congressional qu minute vote on the house floor and we hope to have the opportunity to show you pope benedict the sixteenth and as they touched down welcomed by president bush and others here and andrews air force base just outside of washington d c this is live coverage on the house floor they've been debating the rule for h r fifty seven one theme of the bill that repeals the irises ability to work towards a huge private companies to collect back taxes this is a previous question vote a procedural vote so it's a fifteen minute vote in all likelihood we should have the chance in this vote for upcoming votes to show you as much as we can from andrews air force base also on the house side of today house financial services chairman barney frank sesno intends to on bail page three hundred billion dollars housing stimulus package on thursday this is according to congress now but one of its more controversial provisions will be carved out and introduced as a separate bill on wednesday says congress now this is according to a senior house democratic aid both bills will be marked up next week said the democratic aides from there they will head to the floor in the last week of april where they will be debated along with the housing tax credit bill put forward by house ways and means committee chairman charlie rangle end to the tax area the welcoming area and we hope to have it live for you here on c span during this vote a pub will be in washington for a couple of days then off to new york while in washington he will meet officially with president bush that is  tomorrow morning a welcoming ceremony at the white house he's up in new york this week in events there including a speech before the united nations he is only the fourth pope to speak before the united nations and also say mass at st cathedral and at yankee stadium and during his visit to new york to visit ground zero as well and and pay a visit there make a blessing to understand it at ground zero this will be this weekend in new york he heads back to  twentieth couple of things going on you see via the view of the pope's plane this is at andrews air force base just outside of washington the arrival of pope benedict the sixteenth and there's previous question vote on the house floor with stay here live at andrews as long as we can during this  well you can see the stairs in the way of the red carpet about ready to be rolled out for pope benedict the sixteenth we have not yet seen president bush and first lady laura bush we expect this to get under way in just a moment or two we have heard the president bush will speak tomorrow about global warming first of all he will officially welcome the pope at the white house tomorrow morning that should be about ten thirty eastern tomorrow and we understand in the afternoon we understand now it's two forty five tomorrow afternoon president bush will talk about a climate change the associated press in a report just a short while ago says in a rose garden speech wednesday president bush will outline the way he thinks the u s can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and challenge lawmakers on climate change legislation up for debate in june white house press secretary dana perino said today that bush will not outline a specific proposal but instead will lay out a strategy for long term and realistic goals for curbing emissions which once ever made every major economy putting the fast growing nations like india and china to establish a national goal for cutting the emissions believed responsible for global warming again president bush about that tomorrow two forty five at the white house and in the morning the official welcoming ceremony for pope benedict the benedict the sixteenth this is the ceremony after the arrival at andrews air force base just about fifteen or twenty minutes outside of washington if you're just joining us the house is voting on a first procedural vote previous question on the rules for a bill that would repeal the irises authority to use private companies to collect collect back taxes on this april fifteenth tax day in the debate ahead in the rule debate republicans raise the issue of extending the two thousand and one tax breaks extending certain tax deductions and also simplifying the tax code we're also watching the pope's plane at andrews air force base outside of washington pope benedict the sixteenth touchdown about fifteen minutes ago and we'll show you as much of this is we can during this vote and possibly other upcoming votes as so to twenty the nasal one ninety six the previous question is ordered the question is on the amendments all those in favor say  house members voting on the rule for h r fifty seven one teen a bill that are repealed the i r s has authority to use private companies to collect back taxes you just saw president bush mrs bush and the general welcoming po benedict the sixteenth to andrews air force base in maryland just outside washington we want to let you know that coverage continues live now on c span three and also online at c span dot or because this is a five minute vote we are not going to go back to and we do do want to tell you that to be able to see all of that later in our program schedule on the c span networks during this vote we're going to take you to today's white house briefing with dana perin to start off just with a couple of comments about the president president i'm welcoming pope benedict the sixteenth to america today tomorrow in his remarks the president will say to the holy father that millions of americans have been praying for his visit will also say to the holy father that the nation he will visit is a nation of prayer that welcomes the faithful he will tell him that the hearts of the american people are open to the holy father's message of hope and he will hear from the president that america and the world need to hear his message that god is love that human life is sacred that we all must be guided by common moral law and that we have responsibilities to care for our brothers and sisters in need at home and across the world no just about the visit it's a wonderful historic visit the president and the first lady feel great respect love and friendship for pope benedict and the white house staff across the board we are all very excited as you know the arrival ceremony is tomorrow on the south lawn we are expecting thousands of people possibly nine thousand people that will be one of the largest arrival ceremonies ever held at the white house and that whether conviction the conditions are expected to be spectacular so that will make it even more special this time of year can be dicey in that regard every state arrival requires a lot of planning this is to today's arrival culminates months of work from the white house staff team and also officials at the vatican and we expect that they will have a very good and that in research and other papal visit to the united states found that it's customary for leaders to greet the holy father when he first arrives in the united states whatever that point of origin is and given that that is andrews air force base that's when the reasons we decided to go but the president mrs bush put forward to this being different and unique opportunity for them to drive out today and one of the reasons they're driving instead of taking marine one is because of the amount of people we're expecting on the south lawn tomorrow there's lots of preparations out on the south lawn it was easier president's remarks and so i had to leave it to the vatican to describe his but i i expect the president will go into some but not a lot of detail about areas where they have a shared commitment and shared values such as human pope has been no stranger to criticism by extremists as well and so the president and the pope has shared a desire to work together to combat terrorism so bill i expect we will talk about that the president also interested in how the pope has been working to establish an interfaith dialogue and that's something that the president welcomes especially as we are confronting these issues of extremist ideology around the world that he'll talk about religious freedom them one of the songs performed tomorrow by kathleen battle which we are very happy to have at the white house she'll be singing the lord's prayer and many people across america and across the world say that prayer in order to provide themselves comfort and  this about iraq has come up in the past in the president's talk to the pope as i understand it that they're not long approach they're not prolong patients about it obviously there was a difference of opinion that said and back back in two thousand trillion beyond in subsequent years but now i think that there is an understanding with the strategy that's working in iraq right now that the most important thing we can do is help to solidify the situation into freedom and democracy so that people of religious reconsider is laid on the table the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from california general woman from california ms laufer and to suspend the rules and pass h r fifty thirty six as amended on which the yeas and  eight and for other purposes the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass a bill as amended members will record their votes by electronic device this will be a five minute vot so the house approves the rule for h r fifty seven nineteen a bill that would repeal the i r s authority to use private companies to collect back taxes the rules approved that means in our general debate ahead this is a five minute vote on a build abated earlier dealing with vote counting issues in the november general election five minute vote and during this vote a conversation we had earlier today with a capitol hill reporter on what's ahead in the house  or in whittington swith roll call you write that the house wants to take small bites out of big issues what's that mean well i think you you see it happening on the floor this week where there are a number of smaller bills there's a student loan bill today they're doing a tax assistance bill really the most major thing they're doing this week is they have to do something on the farm bill because it fires on friday so they're either going to it's in conference right now they're either going to have to ask that or pass another extension you don't see real major legislation on the floor this week and the next two weeks they're only here three days out of the week so the headline here story talks about the house agenda creeps along why is house leadership not in a hurry to move legislation along well i think there are a number of factors probably first and foremost is this is a presidential election year and with leaders knowing that in a couple of months we are going to have a new administration whether it be democratic or republican they are just looking to punt things until next year when they can they know that a lot is going to get done i think another reason is that the house did a number of things past number number of measures last year that they sent over to the senate and they just languished there and so i think this year health leaders are saying you know we're not going to force our members to take potentially you know harmful votes on things if it's only going to go over to the senate how the house leaders reacted to the comments that little is getting done well they  disagree majority leader hoyer has said especially and he repeated today that there is a lot getting done behind the scenes it may not be happening on the house floor but things are happening in committee specifically there is a housing package housing bill that is being worked on in financial services right now and they say that we are going to see the fruits of these labors later on this year we're just not seeing them on the floor right now so we're seeing us a slowdown in the the democratic agenda on the house floor what's been the republican house leadership reaction well they say that it's not entirely a do nothing congress it's just a not doing a whole lot congress and you know from their perspective they would like to see as many votes as possible on substantial legislation because you know they want to have opportunities to offer motions to recommit and you know procedural motions where they can kind force vulnerable democrats to take tough votes and they're not getting that opportunity because there's not a whole lot of voting going on you mentioned leader hoyer a moment ago what did he have to say about getting spending bill the two thousand one spending bills done mean that congress would go out in september and not come back until until the next year that pretty much means that i think most people here are operating under the get function that appropriations bills will not get done this year and they will be you know punted to the next congress lastly you write about the the biggest accomplishment this year for the house was the passage of the economic stem this package is the leadership considering a second stimulus for this year they  took that vote that piece of legislation and put it in her back pocket and that to the president you know if if you want to talk about colombia let's talk about a second stimulus bill republicans say it's not needed we need to allow time to you yeas are two thirty nine the nasal one seventy eight two thirds not being in the affirmative the rules are not suspended and the bill is not  house will be in order members please clear the well please take your conversations off of the floor or two thousand and eight as a minute for consideration the clerk will report the title of the bill union calendar number three fifty two h r fifty seven nineteen a bill to amend the internal revenue code nine hundred eighty six to conform return for care penalty standard delay implementation of withholding taxes on government contractors and hand taxpayer protection assist low income tax payers and for other purposes house is not in order pursuant to house resolution eleven zero two the amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in the bill is adopted and the bill as amended is considered read the gentleman from georgia mr lewis and the gentleman from new york mr reynolds each will control thirty minutes the chair recognize the gentleman from georgia the gentleman will suspend gentlemen shall proceed madam speaker myself as much time as i may consume gentleman is recognized madam speaker on tax day it is soul important to eve nineteen to the floor of the house taxpayers must be treated fairly and they deserve all the help we can give them this bill draws import own legislation authored by myself and collection contracts on an os is not in order the gentleman from georgia is correct the house is not in order we asked members to please take their conversations off of the floor and retire to the cloak room the gentleman th distinguished gentleman from georgia mr lewis deserves our attention house is not in order the gentleman may continue thank you madam speaker it will once and for all repeal the of the r s to enter into a private debt collection contract different gram violates the public trust and last in the bill also protects elderly and disabled person from tax madam speaker i reserve the banners of my time what purposes as the gentleman from new york writes i think the speaker nael myself so much time as i may consume the gentleman from new york is recognized i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remark without objection thank you gentlemen today is tax day madam speaker and all across the country millions of americans will wait patiently or not so patiently in line at the local post office making sure that their taxes are postmarked by the midnight deadline after recently struggled through the process of filling out my own tax forms i share the frustrations of millions of american taxpayers not just with the amount of taxes that we have to pay but with the dizzying made of forms worksheets and calculations required by the i r s as well but  working together in a bipartisan way to simplify the process and enhance tax payers rights the majority has chosen to bring forward a partisan political bill that is already drawn a veto threat from the administration and is almost certainly dead on arrival in the other body to be sure this legislation does contain a number of positive pro taxpayer provisions most of which are already passed the house last year in an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis as part of h r sixteen seventy seven unfortunately for this house and for tax payers across the country majority is now abandon that common sense bipartisan approach that we brought to last year's bill instead the majority is include a pair of highly controversial proposals that kill any hope of bipartisan cooperation one imposing a new substantiation requirements on withdrawals from health savings accounts and another cutting off the ability of carefully selected private businesses to assist the i r s in collecting delinquent debt over the course of today's debate we'll hear much more about the concerns that many members have about the h s a provision a provision that was not subject to a single hearing in the ways and means committee and was inserted into the bill just prior to markup without any real understanding of the potential consequences so let me take a moment to focus on the other provision of concern the proposal to repeal the i r s is a to work with private collection agencies to ensure that acknowledged tax debt is actually paid for some members of this body on both sides of the debate this particular issue is simple and it's simply about policy for them it's an abstract question about whether these private collection agencies so called p c s should be able to play a limited supplement terri role in ensuring that undisputed tax this are in fact paid as debate this particular issue yet again this afternoon we'll hear again persuasive evidence making clear just how successful the pca program has already been in narrowing the tax gap and while carefully protecting taxpayers rights will also hear how much additional promise this program holds for the future if it's allowed to continue but for me in the area i represent western new york the issue is much more than an abstract policy debate it's also about jobs as a member of congress who represents world wyoming county in western new york i'm actually more familiar than most members with the work that p c h do after all the largest single private employer in wyoming county pioneer credit recovery is one of the only two companies nationwide that the i r s has selected to help get this important program underway madam speaker pioneer credit is a highly respected local business that has created more than fourteen hundred high paying jobs for families living in either my district or neighboring districts around buffalo and rochester and as my fellow members of western new york's congressional delegation know these jobs have been created in a region that has faced s economic challenges this i r s contractors allow pioneer credit to turn an empty warehouse in perry new york into a thriving job center for newly hired police in short it's been a great economic success story in part of western new york that  desperately needed it is someone who fought to give the i r s the authority to partner with these private companies in the first place i am deeply troubled by the new new majority is once again threatening to diaz arise this important program just it's getting underway at this program is allowed to continue pioneer credit will have the opportunity to compete for future i r s contracts that could create many additional jobs in the area of western new york that i represent killing this program on the other hand constituents real jobs at a time when congress should be working to expand employment opportunities particularly in hard hit areas that are struggling economically i would also like to know madam speaker that under the democrats convoluted paygo rules proposals that reduce anticipated federal revenues must be offset by other provisions that raise revenue as a result of today's proposal to eliminate the pca program a program that is currently expected to bring in more than a half billion dollars to the federal treasury over the next decade also requires them to raise federal revenue or cactuses by the same amount somewhere else that's right the majority is raising taxes by half a billion dollars today in order to eliminate the very program this helping us to collect undisputed tax debts more effectively only in washington madam speaker only in washington this bill is wrong on policy it's wrong on from maryland most of van hollen a member of the ways and means committee i am recognize the distinguished gentlemen for two minutes and recognize the distinguished gentleman from mt i thank my colleague from georgia and thank him for his leadership on this important issue madam speaker i rise in strong support of this legislation the taxpayer assistance and support of the cation act it's a set of commonsense reforms designed to make the tax code a little more consumer friendly for hardworking americans if the i r s has reason to believe that you've been a victim of identity theft this bill says the i r s should let you know if you're entitled to an unclaimed refund this bill empowers the i r s to do more to find you and if you need help with your taxes this bill lets the i r s refer you to a qualified taxpayer clinic that can provide assistance so whether it's from eliminating nuisance paperwork to publicizing the earned income tax credit to clamping down on predatory refund anticipation loans this bill time and again sides with the taxpayer i'm particularly pleased that includes legislation many of us have worked on to end the practice of bounty hunting and terminate the program of contracting out the collection of taxes to private debt collectors proponents of this program say it's necessary to close the tax gap the facts just say they're wrong the program today hasn't return single dime of additional revenue to the u s treasury in fact so far as we gather here today it's been a revenue loser and it is a logical driven black hole that has sucked fifty million dollars out of the treasury last year alone and we would have been able to raise and this is according to both republican and i r s commissioners we would have been able to raise one point four billion dollars in revenue from people who hadn't paid taxes if we'd simply hired more s agents to do the job and that's also the testimony of the national taxpayer advocate at the department of treasury that's the person whose job it is to look out for the taxpayers and she testified this is a bad  taxpayers we should get rid of it and we shouldn't be surprised we had a similar program in the one nine hundred ninety s it was ended because of abusive practices and it failed to collect the money let's learn from history let's adopt this legislation thank you madam speaker and his time expired the gentleman from new york now speaker my distinguished colleagues on the ways and means committee i'm from wisconsin mr ryan who's an expert on h s h and other matters before the consideration today i yield three minutes to mr ryan wisconsin gentleman from wisconsin is recognized for three minutes i appreciate the chairman the gentleman for yielding mr speaker why are we here we're here because it's tax day and the majority decided they had to have a tax bill to come to the floor to pass on tax day there are some good provisions in this bill i want to talk about one provision that is not a good provision and that's what we call s h s a substantiation what that basically means is without having a single hearing the majority wants to bring these new red tape complicated rules to health savings accounts so that every time somebody goes and makes a health care purchase that's under their deductible they have to first get permission from their banker or from the government before they do it that's essentially what substantiation does now we've heard from banks from the credit unions from the n f i b in the small businesses they're all saying we're not going to do it anymore we're just not going to offer h s a to our clients mr speaker the key with health savings accounts is that people can save tax free for their out of pocket health care spending why on earth would we want to bring a bill to the floor which we know will reduce the use of health savings accounts the goal of this congress ought to be to make health care more accessible and more affordable unfortunately this bill does goes in the wrong direction and so we want to inflict all this red tape that we don't inflict on individual retirement accounts or home equity lines of credit on this and this will make it harder for people to save tax free for health care it will tie them up in red tape it will say to the banks and the credit unions that offer these things don't offer him any more and more to the point we're doing this clumsy legislating without having had one hearing in the ways and means committee more to the point madam speaker is this the market's already  need to have better record keeping the markets already showing us they can do this without this law but if you impose this law as this bill does guess what's going to happen people in rural america people in small towns people in janesville wisconsin they won't be able to subscribe to this law their retailers don't have the technology that's being required here so you're going to leave rural america small town america out and only urban areas can comply with this this is not good legislating has not been seen through no forethought no hearings more to the point is going to make it harder for people in rural and small towns to save tax free for health care it's going to make it harder for anybody to save tax free for health care this is going to raise health care costs and it's going to make it harder for patients to really get control of their health care destiny and that is why this bill should be defeated for this piece of policy alone this bill should be defeated because it was not thought through was slammed in there at the last minute and that of a reason that on this day on tax day we should not be telling the american people we're going to raise your taxes if you want to go buy health care that's wrong but that's what this bill does and i think we should reject this bill for that reason alone with that i appreciate very much is leadership of the oversight subcommittee on the ways and means committee couple things to respond to the matter before us involves a pay for because unlike much of the work of my friend the ranking member of the budget committee this majority pays for things that cost the treasury now the h s a issue he just raised involves tax free accounts in savings accounts to be used for health care we ask that there be some verification to show the money withdraw on we spend for health care that's all what drives us to this is a report we had from one account manager that shows these funds being withdrawn for everything from body shop repa fast food restaurants sure all you know well is a gentleman knows this is their money and if they choose to withdraw their money for non healthcare reasons they pay it and i will claim it claiming when i really claiming my time and i only have two minutes this h s a i believe the gentleman would agree in fact i think you said it in his comments is for the cost of health care it gives the tax incentive cost tax and tax assistance to taxpayers for health care costs not for body shop costs we don't we don't tax incentive body shop costs and so we'd like to shut that abuse down the question is legitimately raises is too onerous absolutely not we all have many of us have flex savings accounts that are used for medical costs now all we ask is that the same verification any federal employee uses when they make a withdrawal in their flex say these account would be used to substantiate withdraw from the health savings account this is an inventing something new done it works well another feature of the village drawn such objection is this business of putting out a business price the whole notion of private bill collectors being loosed on our taxpayers to collect revenues on the federal government i had expired the gentleman has any more time of another year of the gentleman an additional minute madam speaker the gentleman is recognized for an additional minute referred my colleagues to the washington post front page story today collectors cost i r s more than they raise we've had in fact kind of the the bill collection version of the six hundred dollars toilet seat for the pentagon contractor procurements this was advertised to cost very little ten to fourteen million million dollars well absolved up to seventy million and counting a multiple of what was  advertised that's at the set up costs well they said we're going to bring all this money well the reality has just brought in only a fraction of the money advertised and so on a net basis this whole initiative to bring in money us has cost us money we've been shipping more money to contractors this is than administration and this is a minority that loves private contractors and if it costs the federal government on the net balance it doesn't and speaker listening to some of my colleagues i'm sure will have more on the democratic side that have been since proponents of doing away with the collection i just want to remind some of couple things that we should look at first this is money that the i r s will not go after it is part of the goal that congress said we will pursue to get this money and it was going to show a one billion dollars over ten year revenue now we have seen the start up of pca as one and island one in new york after very clear scrutiny by the i r s and by strong oversight of the congress and there are start up costs of the fifty million as we're beginning to see the program come under way to pursue money that the i r s he there has been collected can't call act will not collect as the p c are pursuing that and i've listened to a lot of people describe what they think they understand of a p c a but they've never really been in tune with it kind of reminds me of somebody debating a t m legislation and never actually used an yield two minutes to the distinguished senior member of the ways and means committee in california mr her but how much time the management the gentleman is recognized for two minutes madam speaker as americans send their check to the i r s today they have a number of concerns there are the dozens of tax provisions that expired last year and have not yet been extended adding to economic uncertainty inefficiency of many federal agencies resulting in waste of hard earned tax dollars and they are the the entitlement programs that threaten to double the federal tax burden over the coming decades if they are not reformed all of these issues congress should be considering this tax day one complaint i've never heard from my constituents is that the i r s doesn't ask them for enough information you have to legislation before us would impose burdens some new reporting requirements on five million americans with health savings accounts although congress has held no hearings to determine whether misuse of h s a funds is a real problem these requirements would make h s a is less convenient for consumers in could lead financial institutions to stop offering as ironically this bill would also repeal i program that collects bad tax debts the majority's message seems to be that if you're not paying your taxes we'll let you off the hook gentleman from georgia madam speaker no one no one on their side of the aisle a suggestion that we all should pay our fair share madam speaker a nine year two minutes to the gym to move from illinois member of the ways and means committee general from illinois recognized for two minutes thank you madam speaker to pick up on my colleague from george's comments about fairness one of the provisions in this legislation deals with closing the loophole for k b r a former halliburton subsidiary they use cayman islands to avoid paying taxes and that is it was discovered that in fact gave me k b r the company that was doing its operations in iraq was not paying and we consciously set up a company in the cayman islands just as it was just a post office box set up a company to avoid paying social security medicare and unemployment insurance which is how they became quote unquote the low bit it is the company by the way and i'm sure you remember this that served contaminated water to our troops costing the taxpayers more money to take care of the health of those troops they set up an operation in the cayman islands and in fact their post office was post office box eight four seven one capitol plates fourth floor shedden road grand cayman cayman islands k y one dash one one zero three and the reason they were the low bidder they didn't pay their fair share and the truth is the american people care about two things when it comes to taxes simplicity to the code and fairness and there's an example of the unfairness in our code in fact is avoid paying their fair share taxes and one of the pieces of this legislation is in fact to shut down the operation so companies cannot get contracts doing government work or the united states paid for by the taxpayers who sole purpose is to avoid paying their fair madam speaker gentleman is recognized one additional thirty second thank you madam speaker on a worker who was laid off of the ten thousand employees went to go collect unemployment insurance and was told no you don't have the money for that because you didn't pay into it says no i work for american company and then discovered the fact he didn't work for an american company k b r was a company set up in the cayman islands for the purpose of avoid paying their fair share of taxes and it's right here on april fifteenth when americans are facing bigger gentleman from new york ben speaker i'd like to yield two minutes to my colleague the distinguished ranking member of the health committee of ways and means from michigan mr camp gentleman is recognized for two minutes thank you and i think the gentleman for yielding here we are on tax day april fifteenth talking about a bill called the taxpayer assistance and support the cation act great title but this bill falls remarkably short what this congress should be debating today is legislation to simplify and reform the tax code the tax code over sixty seven thousand pages long according to the tax foundation it takes taxpayers six billion hours and over two hundred sixty billion dollars to comply with current tax laws that's unacceptable congress instead of this bill congress needs to pass legislation to make filing tax returns simpler and fair while more and more americans are demanding congress make our tax laws easier to comply with the ways and means committee has held only one hearing on tax reform since the beginning of last year and just as the economy struggles in the face of problems in the housing and credit markets rising gas and food prices and an uptick in unemployment the house democrat budget proposes to families with the largest tax increase in history instead of reforming the tax code and lowering the tax burden the bill before us ignores both those questions and while there are some good provisions in it like i support the provision that no longer requires employees to keep track of the cell phone calls they make on their office cell phones other measures in the bill make it objectionable i reject the majority's attempts to impose new administrative burdens on the use of health savings account millions of americans are enrolled in h s a is because they provide consumers with the ability to affordably manage their own health care costs h r fifty seven nine hundred eleven harder for people to save for their own health care h s a is already have a built in enforcement mechanism spine i would feel the gentleman additional minute gentleman is recognized for an additional minute i think the gentleman for yielding h s days already have a built in enforcement mechanism that seeks to ensure h s a funds are spent on quo all of fide medical expenses if a person spend those dollars on a non qualified expense they're subject to individual income taxes and a ten percent penalty the i r s also has the right to audit h s a withdrawals americans are concerned about the cost of health care before congress rushes to impose new burdens on h s a the one innovation that helps patient centered individual health care helps individuals take control of their health care we should find out first if there really is a problem and then how we can fix it without restricting the ability of consumers to take greater control of their health care decision making i urge my colleagues to reject this flawed legislation and i reserve the balance of my time as time has expired gentleman from georgia speaker i'm now year two minutes to the gentleman from oregon mr blue and i are a member of the ways and means committee gentleman from oregon is recognized for two minutes i appreciate the gentleman's courtesy i find no small amount of irony listening to our friends from the other side of the aisle talk about complexity on tax day because for the twelve years that they were in charge there was an explosion hundreds of thousands additional words added to the i r s code loopholes and complexity not simplification i say absolute hogwash that these are that there are areas that the i r s won't go after to collect and we have to use private collection agencies they are the people who decided to under fund the i r s testimony before our committee was conclusive the i trained employees collect eight times as much per person as these back the hunters that they contract out we will raise with them a minimum of seventy million dollars investment we w over one point four billion dollars equally specious is the argument here that we're hearing about h s a these there are millions of americans who have benefits as my good friend from north dakota dakota pointed out flexible savings accounts we have them for our federal employees and they have all they have to do however is there are some minimal that what they're proposing is that we just ignore it and allow people to use it for car washes and country club memberships and rely on an occasional audit which is much more difficult because they have cut back on the i r s that's foolish it works for millions of americans with flexible benefits accounts there's no problem doing it with h s a it's time for us to move forward with these simple common sense time as i may consume dumas recognize of x speaker well i just want to make sure that least the tax payers from the countryside i come from realize that h r five seven one nine which we're considering the taxpayer assistance and simplification act of two thousand and eight really sounds good sounds really good on tax day is i open my remarks by saying that taxpayers are in line now or will be till midnight tonight to have a postmarked april fifteenth date but we know that this legislation will face a steep consideration of some saying dead on arrival in the other body we've seen the administration have advised or threaten veto and yet while there were so many things that we agreed upon the ways and means committee i'm really publicans and democrats we have a bill that brings controversy that brings a nother one house bill gets tough as we move towards november of an election year to explain that we didn't get much done but boy do we have a lot of action on one house bills and i want to just share for the record here on this body what i did in the ways and means hearing because i think there are two important documents that my colleague says this debate goes today and some of the consideration of what will be difficult on seeing p c s as the legislation may come to pass from this body will see difficult sledding in the other body as well as the administration or two  reports the treasury inspector general for tax of ministration wrote one on march twenty sixth only weeks ago that had inadequate security controls over routers and switches that jeopardize sensitive taxpayer information was done by the inspector general and i want to just report because we had it confirmed by representatives of the administration under our examination that this in fact  in the report which was submitted to the ways and means committee and it says impact to the taxpayer because the i r s sends sensor of taxpayer and administrative information across this network routers on the networks must have sufficient security controls to detour and detect unauthorized use access controls for i r s routers were not adequate and reviews to monitor security configuration changes were not conducted to identify an inappropriate use a disgruntled employee contractor or hacker could reconfigure routers and switches to disrupt computer operations and steal taxpayer information in the number of ways including diverting information to unauthorized systems manama speaker that same very day march twenty sixth the same treasury inspector general for tax administration issued a second report called the private collection agencies adequately protected taxpayer data and this information also was confirmed under examination as we made inquiries to the administration that confirm that the reports exist and they were well aware of these findings as well and it said on page two of the inspector general's report we reviewed the computer security controls over taxpayer data provided to the two current a or private collection agencies for those maybe not following the debate and determine that the controls were adequate in particular files were securely transmitted from the i r s to the contractors an adequate secured on the contractor systems in addition workstations used by contractor collection personnel were adequately controlled to prevent an authorized copy in the taxpayer information to removable media or transfer via email the contractors also maintain adequate audit trails and perform periodic reviews including reviews to identify unauthorized access to taxpayer data now the response from the i r s contained also on page two of the treasury inspector general said that key i r s management officials reviewed the report prior to issuance and re greed to the reaver results of the review we know that in the operation of p c s we're going to see the collection pursuit of five hundred million dollars over that over the next ten years and we know that at this legislation prevails there's going to be a tax increase of five hundred million dollars to pay for this under the majority's paygo rules and so as we continue the debate make it clearly understood that the pursuit of these p c s was on proceeds that were not collected could not be collected needed to be collected in order to put into the treasury this money owed by taxpayers to the government and that as we look at this legislation what has brought the controversy to uncontroversial legislation legislation that both parties could agree to was the adding of s h h as a changes and dealing with the p c a so madam speaker as i put these into the record my colleagues need to consider the type of consequences were seen and what will be a misguided change on pca legislation i reserve the balance of my treasury reports to read to you and i don't have and i'm not here to tell you what should have been what we could have done should have done would have done but i'm here to talk on behalf of h r fifty seven nineteen because there are some important components and provisions of this bill when taken together will make future tax days more fair and less strenuous for the average american taxpayer a t r fifty seven nineteen contains divisions to ensure that tax payers receive all the tax benefits they are entitled to this bill will increase outreach to help taxpayers benefit from the earned income tax credit and find unclaimed refunds effectively lowering taxes for many americans i think this is a good provision this bill also prevents the i r s from using private dect electors to collect federal income taxes private debt collectors are proven to be poorly equipped for the job actually costing the i r s and taxpayers thirty seven million more than they have collected this change is an important move to protect taxpayer privacy and as a taxpayer and is a citizen i want the government and the i r s to do its job and not not send this responsibility out to someone else i'm also very supportive of a provision to postpone implementation of this three percent withholding requirement on government payment to vendors this requirement will cause significant administrative and financial burdens on local governments unfairly penalize in companies and raising prices on consumers i think this is a good provision in this law and this legislation the bill also helps protect taxpayers by requiring the i r s to notify individuals if unlawful use of their identity is detected by cracking down on websites that try to defraud people do you said the gentleman is recognized thank you thank your men and all of these taken together are an earth shattering and they're not going to change the way that we collect taxes in this country but it's going to help and it's going to help millions of our fellow americans on wanted to include in this bill to increase the access of eligible taxpayers to the t c the earned income tax credit so i want to personally thank you and your staff for your outreach to our office and include the ronald reagan himself referred to the i c c as the greatest anti poverty program in the history of our country so i think it deserves worthy bipartisan support by the speaker we heard in testimony last week in the committee on ways and means from the taxpayer advocate of the united states at a identity fraud against taxpayers to skyrocketing this bill establishes some of the strongest protections for taxpayers against identity theft scams especially those at greatest risk of fraud  and veterans filing this year to claim the earned the economic stimulus rebate check but my colleagues in the in the on the other side of the aisle republican my republican colleagues in the bush administration are adamantly opposed to this taxpayer protection act because they're opposed to the offset that we provide now one can argue that some my republican colleagues philosophically opposed paying for anything and support the continuation of what i believe was  every person born in this country today in fact in my own home it's at ninety thousand dollars because i have an eighty seven two year old i can imagine that to be very happy if they understood what the birth tax was that was placed upon them by irresponsible account i really don't understand the opposition here it was simply asking for is for accountability we know that health savings accounts have been spent for country club membership massage parlors women's lingerie shops casinos and gambling dating an escort services  let's really put this on the perspective what we're talking about is accountability and health savings accounts were not saying that should be used to help purposes but they should be held accountable people right now hard working honest faith loving americans that want to donate to a charity or to requirement and we're talking about pretax dollars on health savings accounts the something wrong here i wish my publican colleagues would better understand it it's simply absurd that they don't support this accountability for an additional minute to make sure that those that help save the council being used for the purposes of for health reasons i dare say that the iris is looking at probably more often than not the charitable contributions that hardworking americans make and making sure that friend and colleague from the arcus he sees his views i thought maybe i might for the record just outlined that i have a copy of the leads off with the end of by being goes down to the and national taxpayers union and it has the u s chamber and it has a retail industry leaders association the national retail federation national restaurant association national socialist to manufacturers and so many others and make it available in case some of my colleagues haven't seen it this isn't something the republicans this side of the aisle just kind of dreamed up that there's problems that make this legislation controversial with h s a legislation or with the p c a is well documented b experts that are using the program i also think rather than some of my colleagues interpret ing what the administration may have for support or rejection of the legislation maybe i should read into the record exactly what the statement of the administration's policy is on h r five seven one nine so that we all know what the administration's concerns are and for the record the administration strongly opposes h r five seven one nine the so called taxpayer assistance and support the cation act of two thousand and eight the bill includes provisions that would impose new administrative burdens on the trustees of health savings account these new burdens on h s a administrators unnecessary first fish and tax administration inconsistent with the flexibility purposely afforded h s r h s a s at their inception and could undermine the efforts by employers individuals and insurers to reduce health care costs and improve health outcomes by empowering consumers to take greater control of health care decision making if h r five seven one nine were presented to the president with these provisions his senior advisers would recommend that he would veto the bill also the administration strongly opposes provisions a bill that would repeal the current statutory authorization for the internal revenue service private debt collection program as a i will not till i complete this and i'll be happy to as of february two thousand aid over ninety eight thousand cases have been referred to contractors representing over nine hundred ten million dollars in delinquent accounts terminating this program would result in a loss of five hundred seventy eight million dollars in revenue over the next ten years according to congress joint committee on taxation these are tax dollars that are legally owed to the government or otherwise very unlikely to be collected by the i r s due to workload demands as noted in previous statements of administrative policy the administration strongly opposes elimination of this program which is not consistent with the administration's commitment to a balanced approach toward improving taxpayer compliance and collecting outstanding tax liabilities if h r five seven one nine were presented to the president with these provisions his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill the legislation places or the least interpretation of the administration that the legislation places onerous responsibilities on the what was the of the trustees of the air to say where in the legislat time i thank the gentleman i just think it's important we look at first i heard debate coming from the majority of from the gentleman that outlined his interpretation of why the administration was opposed to the bill i listened carefully i made a decision to read into the record exactly what the administrative policy position was on this so there was no longer an interpretation from a member of congress but exactly in written word what the administration said relative to this bill and i think when we look at fact while we're looking at any other aspects of this legislation we do know the following that the administration is going to veto this legislation that we also know it has difficult sledding in the other body and it has in the past has a track record that  appears just with p c a alone let alone some of the concerns that have been put forth in the letter that i read from earlier on h s a is that we now have another one house bill being trumped up and  laid out on tax day and i will say the majority is some perv in showmanship we seem to be able to move legislation to the floor on significant days today is tax legislation on tax day april fifteenth but i also know that my public is not going to be confused by the fact that while we prop up a extravaganza of legislation on special days today the tax legislation on april fifteenth that the voters are going to take a real hard look will what really got done what got improved what was made better for america and again we have another one house bill that just sadly had too much partisanship in it and fell away i reserve the balance of my time gentleman reserves gentleman from georgia man or speaker i would like to know n f i b has an endorser and supporter house resolution taxpayer assistance and simplification act of two thousand and eight let me tell you that to my colleagues that this bill simply closes a lot of loopholes that were created by when the my republican friends controlled this congress in the majority years ago and it also addresses some of the disaster isbel should ministration policies that were adopted by my friends the republicans when they were in the majority but they're no longer in the majority this year let me tell you what this is all about you know my republican friends in the bush administration love to privatized they wanted to privatized social security remember that they wanted to privatized prescription drugs and they got away with it and that's why it's so expensive and convoluted privatized health care at walter reed hospital and you know the disasters that happened there trying to privatized the delivery of the united states mail privatized security in iraq by letting sick private contractors handle these things for the u s army blackwater and how the burden sounds f but one of the things that this bill that we're passing today in the house will do will be to eliminate one of the disastrous bush and republican policies that they inserted in a two thousand and four bill that policy was to they slashed the number of i r s tax collectors and then they said oh my gosh we can't collect enough taxes so you know we'll do we'll privatized the collection of taxes this is after they removed the number of virus tax collectors they said will hire private folks to collect taxes but will pay them eight times more then it would cost at federal government employees may have an additional m gentlemen's recognize an additional one minute thank the gym so can you imagine if they slashed tyrus tax collectors from people who owed taxes so last the tax collectors and wanted to privatized it and pay eight times more to their friends in private industry to do it eight times more it only just now when the democrats are in control of the house that we're able now to pass this bill today too in that program and when my friend from new york on the other side of the aisle says well you know it's only a one house bill because the senate won't approve this ask yourself why that is because there are only fifty one democratic senators in the senate and you need sixty votes in the senate to overcome a fil buster we only have fifty one democrats in the senate we can't get nine republicans to get rid of this ridiculously wasteful program of privatizing tax collection so it's like the terrible story  kid who killed his parents and plead for mercy on the court that he's an orphan they slashed the tax collectors then they gave it to their cronies now them and they don't plan it brought in to help us fix this problem that they created fortunately the house of the majority that cronies and then when we get a democratic majority in the house and pass this through a limited this wasteful program they say well it won't pass the senate because the republicans in the senate won't do it and we need them to add up the sixty votes speaker i think i heard my colleague when he said that democrats are in the majority in this body democrats are in the majority in the other body but it's the republicans fault that this legislation isn't going to happen now i have explained a lot of tough challenging things to my constituents but i don't think they're going to buy that it's just another one house bill that is going to the other body is going to see death it isn't going to see the light of day now moving to my colleague from new york who asked me the question i didn't think i could provide the answer to his question quite as soon as i could and saving him looking it up because i sure was a one off the floor he might be looking up this i want to go back again to the statement of administration policy the bill includes provisions that would impose new administrative burdens on the trustees of health savings accounts that's what the administration said in their veto threat now on the bill as reported out of many by the majority page twenty two line seven eight and nine to my colleagues says a trustee of a house savings account shall make a report regarding such account to the secretary and account beneficiary setting for all i want everyone to know including my colleague who asked the question it is clear in your bill that you set forth that the h s a trustees would have new administrators burdensome reserve the balance of my time gentleman reserves gentleman from georgia member speak i'm pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from georgia a member of the financial services committee and my friend mr scott gentleman from georgia is recognized for two minutes thank you very much mr madam speaker and to my distinguished colleague from george i want to commend you on your excellent leadership on this very very important and timely piece of legislation a lot has been said here today the two points of contention that the other side has brought have been in two areas and let me just speak to those directly so that we can get to the facts of the matter and the other side says that they are opposed to the health savings accounts compl what we're saying on our side is this the hell savings accounts are set up for the purpose of helping our constituents with health care services now if that is the case then it is very important that we set up a mechanism so that we could check the abuses of that they're not set up for them to go and to use those that counts pollers for country clubs for other issues and areas escort services so it's important for us to be able to simply do this the bill simply requires the reporting of the holder of the health service account of any funds used for non health care purposes in order to reduce the tax gap that's simple now ladies and gentlemen the american people are holding on by their fingernails in this terrible economy and you may laugh and scorn about this being a perfect eight of course is april fifteenth and it is a day that the american people's minds are totally focused on their personal finances and it is important that this house of representatives respond in a way that responds to that interest and so we closing the gap to make sure that our  thank you very much so it's very important let me get to the other area very quickly and that is the area of these private contractors we have received complaint after complaint at the complaint from your constituents and our constituents have been abused by calls let me give you one example of an elderly couple let's call one hundred and fifty times madam speaker including five times in one day asking for taxpayer and it comes to find that they were innocent again the g a o found out that debt collectors were placing over one million calls to innocent people just to reach thirty five thousand taxpayers the federal trade commission taxpayers is wrong now let me tell you this that the commissioner of the i r s himself mr douglas schumer are asked for this legislation and madam chairman i just simply say that if the i r s is asking for this that they could do a better job they're the ones to hold them responsible family show me how do we buy this legislation and let the i r s do their job of collecting the taxes and not handed off to these private bounty how common the gentleman has expired gentlemen from new york yielding and i want to begin my remarks by commending the fine job mr reynolds has done today as he has indicated it is stretches place in uniquely affection because many of the people at the pioneer call cent private debt collector hired to collect us that are in his district i think we all recognize he's done a fine job in fighting for that business activity in his district today's given everything he has and i commend him for the job he's done but the reality in the policy context is summed up in a simple headline in today's post collectors cost i r s more than they raise why in the world would we want to continue with an arrangement like that but there are many other parts of this bill that are simplify in the process helpful to tax payers and that's why we have the support of the american institute a certified public accountants the national association of state auditors controllers and treasurers the national league of cities u s conference of mayors citizens for tax justice national consumer league consumer federation america and a late breaking one fact this organization as been mentioned on both list scoring this as a key vote they indicate that the provisions in this legislation seek to enact simpler tax rules and reduce the paperwork burden associated with tax compliance they talk about a few provisions one of them right have an onerous burden paperwork requirement on employers providing cell phones to employees for business purposes so i commend my republican colleague on ways and means them johnson for bringing this to our attention i was pleased to co sponsor legislation with him including the pomeroy johnson or the johnson pomeroy bill in this i think was an important feature to the n f i b deliberation that this is indeed less than paperwork requirements on small employers and therefore they support it they do cite a couple of other provisions another provision of this legislation amending a recent change to the tax code that helps tax preparers better assist their clients by changing an established higher standard of reporting for preparers that creates a potential conflict of interest between clients and themselves that's addressed in this legislation and they also talk about the legislation including a one year delay of the implementation of the three percent withholding requirement by federal state and local governments on payments for goods and services which puts administrative burdens on all parties involved in a strain on the daily operating cash flows of small businesses there are other provisions in well but i appreciate the n f i b he's laying them out as they have done of the gentleman is i would proceed and then have you close if you are ready today represents yet another missed opportunity on the floor of this house we could have procedures of taxpayer rights and tax simplification in a bipartisan way just as we did last year but with the election season now  full swing the majority seems more interested in staging political theater than actually getting something done for hardworking middle class taxpayers this house and this country deserve more taxpayers and today when so many people fall on that tax return we should let them know there we are looking out for them given him protection they need and support that they deserve this is a good time all time for debate has expired pursuant to house resolution one thousand and one the previous question is ordered on the bill as amended the question is on engrossment and third reading of the bill those in favor of say  standard to lay implementation of withholding taxes on government contractors and hands taxpayer protections assist low income tax payers and for other purposes bonds a sanctuary state and city in general paragraph one of section one hundred three c defining state or local bond is amended by adding at the end the following that sentence such terms shall not include any obligation of a state or political subdivision there and such state or political subdivision has an effective policy whether statutory or or otherwise specified that employs as such state or political subdivision are not required to notify federal officials of an alien who has been lawfully present in the united states the effective date the amendment made by the section sell it shall apply to bonds issued after the date of  ment of this act section twenty one efforts to administer earned income tax credit the secretary of the treasury shelling creasy efforts of the internal revenue service to ensure to the exam possible that aliens unlawful present in the united states are not allowed a credit under section thirty two of the internal revenue code of one hundred eighty six relating to earned income pursuant to the rule the gentleman from california is recognized for five minutes in support of his motion and a member in opposition to the motion will be recognized for five minutes the gentleman from california madam speaker a federal law requires local governments to cooperate with the department of homeland security's immigration and customs enforcement local law enforcement authorities may turn over individuals who have been apprehended if the police believe they are not legally present in the united states unfortunately many local governments want this requirement and openly boast that they refuse to cooperate with the federal government helping to enforce our immigration laws establishing an irresponsible president and frustrating our shared goal of having safe and secure borders as you know taxpayers all across the country subsidize local governments through a provision of federal law that permits states and localities to issue debt that is exempt from federal taxes the motion presents the members of congress with a simple question is it reasonable to put some strains on this subsidy if adopted the motion with clarified at the federal tax subsidy does not apply to new  issued by states or localities that declare themselves by statute or other manner to be a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants in other words having self help themselves out of helping the federal government address the growing burden of illegal immigrants then they should not expect american taxpayers to subsidize their debt madam speaker on april fifteenth we're reminded that again about the many americans who are playing by the rules yet still feel the squeeze on their family budgets particularly at tax time is it only fair that we ask our city mayors and county boards to do the same this brings me to the second piece of our motion to recommit many american families benefit from the earned income credit it is help millions of low income families help make ends meet though its cost of the treasury is not insubstantial studies have often show known that the earned income credit is over claimed by as much as thirty percent in other words many of those who receive the benefit are not actually entitled to it as the underlying bill includes a provision directing the i r s to conduct outreach to inform individuals that they may be eligible for the earned income credit demotion would add language directing the i r s to improve its efforts to identify individuals who may be ineligible for the e i c on account of their citizenship status madam speaker i encourage all my colleagues to vote for this motion to recommit while i'm gravely concerned about the message sent by down their lying bill that somehow we are going to take away an effective tool to ensure we all pay our fair share of taxes this motion helps correct that wrong headed to help by trying to prevent tax benefits from going to illegal aliens and cities and states who shelter them from our immigration laws i urge passage of the motion and yield back the balance of my time gentleman yield back is time for purposes of the gentleman from north dakota commit you're opposed to the motion i'm opposed to the motion the gentleman is recognized for five minutes i think the speaker for yolu we've just taken the motion in terms of trying to sort through the tax provisions within i am among other things to wondering whether or not people holding bonds of municipalities could suddenly find themselves with taxes that in think they were going to have one and want these bonds and trying to work our way through these one word jumped out  that really has shut down all further analysis by us and that's the word promptly because this is yet another way one of those motions to recommit that is designed for one purpose and one purpose only and that's to kill the bill the trying to attach it to because this would take the taxpayer assistance and simplification act that we want to pass on april fifteenth and pack it all back to the ways and means committee  dispensing any possibility of passing it off the floor today it is a procedural move by the minority to try and stop us from moving forward with this legislation what's unfortunate about that is there taxpayers are going to be benefited benefits and stan shelly by this legislation these small businesses that right now are subject to i r s audit exposure if they're not keeping detailed call records on cell phones that they give their employees we want to take this relief away through this motion recommitted i don't think so we we go through so many positive taxpayer friendly provisions of this bill provisions that have received the the support of so many diverse organizations from the league of cities so sation and mayors n f i b and the consumers union consumers federation of america rather  well my friends and confided in the front page of today's washington post basically they're trying everything they can to preserve private bill collectors hired by the i r s to chase after taxpayers so here on tax day april fifteenth we're trying to stop private bill collectors from going after taxpayers in behalf of the i r s procedure that whole endeavor that has cost taxpayers millions at and broadly and not enough to by any measure to cover the cost of a foregone revenue opportunity at eighty one million dollars testified by the taxpayer advocate if we simply take the money with sent to these private contractors hired employees to go ahead and collect that debt but they're sell completely convinced that we've got to got to pull everything every trick out of their ha commit his to herger i think it's interesting the other side has pointed out that we've chosen today tax day to bring this bill to the floor it's also interesting that would be to take this motion to recommit the same day that the pope has arrived here in the united states is with the president right now at the white house the same pope who has decried the xena phobic nature of some of the legislation it's become for this house by the other side of the aisle i think it's interesting to note that no illegal aliens will be hurt by this motion to recommit in fact it will be the elderly woman who relies upon her opportunities to buy these bonds for their income later in life i'd also point out it's quite possible that new york state and california the  for the underlying legislation for him and heals back for what purposes of the gentleman from georgia speaker and it true the chairs rolled up of multiple times on the fact that a bill reported promptly out of the house may return to the house floor at the discretion of the committee and the fact that the ways and means committee brought this to the floor it could easily do so within a relatively short period time a matter of days on november fifteenth two thousand and seven at some subsequent time the committee could meet and could report the bill back to the house i thank the speaker without objection previous question is ordered on the motion to recommit questions on the motion those in favor say aye those oppose no no they haven't the motion is not agree  i object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present i make a point of order that a quorum is not present gentleman from california object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and makes a point of order that a quorum is not present a quorum is not present under the pursuant to clause eight in clause nine of rule twenty to fifty minute vote on the motion to recommit will be followed by five minute vote on passage of the bill if ordered and suspension of the rules with respect to h r fifty five seventeen this is a fifteen minute vote and as you just heard a fifteen minute vote on her way on a motion to recommit detax payer assistance and simplification act h r five seven one nine we spoke to a capitol who reporter about this bill and here's what he had to say whittington swith roll call you right that the house wants to take small bites out of big issues what's that mean well i think you see it happening on the floor this week where there are number of smaller bills there's a student loan bill today they're doing tax assistance bill really the most major thing they're doing this week is they have to do something on the farm bill because it fires on friday so they're either going to conference right now they're either going to have to ask that or pass another extension you don't see real major legislation on the floor this week and the next two weeks they're only here three days out of the week so the headline here story talks about the house agenda creeps along why is house leadership not in a hurry to move legislation along well i think there are a number of factors probably first and foremost is this is a presidential election year and with leaders knowing that in a couple of months we are going to have a new administration whether it be democratic or republican they are just looking to punt things until next year when they can they know that a lot is going to get done i think another reason is that the house did a number of things past number number of measures last year that they sent over to the senate and they just languished there and so i think this year health leaders are saying you know we're not to force our members to take potentially you know harmful votes on things if it's only going to go over to the senate by the house leaders reacted to the comments that little is getting done well they  disagree majority leader hoyer has said especially and he repeated today that there is a lot getting done behind the scenes may not be happening on the house floor but things are happening in committee specifically there is a housing package housing bill that is being worked on and financial services right now and they say that we are going to see the fruits of these labors later on this year we're just not seeing them on the floor right now so we're seeing us a slowdown in the the democratic agenda on the house f what's been the republican house leadership reaction well they say that it's not entirely a do nothing congress it's just a not doing a whole lot congress and you know from their perspective they would like to see as many votes as possible on substantial legislation because you know they want to have opportunities to offer motions to recommit and you know procedural motions where they can kind of force vulnerable democrats to take tough votes and they're not getting that opportunity because there's not a whole lot of voting going on you mentioned leader hoyer a moment ago what did he have to say about getting spending bill the two thousand and spending bills done this  are you talking about today or just in the past in the past week or so well he's said that there is not going to be he doesn't think there's going to be a lame duck this year and that would mean that congress would go out in september and not come back until until the next year that pretty much means that i think most people here are operating under the get something that appropriations bills will not get done this year and they will be you know punted to the next congress lastly you write about the biggest accomplishment this year for the house was the passage of the economic stimulus package is the leadership considering a second stimulus for this year they are that vote that piece of legislation and put it in her back pocket and to the president you know if you want to talk about colombia let's talk about a second stimulus bill republicans they've not needed we need to allow them to you know see if the first similis package is working and the democrats are pushing forward and saying we're you know one way or another we're going to really try to do the second stimulus lauren what it lauren whittington reporting for roll call on the house agenda thanks for joining us thank you and we are under way with a fifteen minute vote on a motion to recommit this taxpayer assistance and simplification act the h r fifty seven nineteen more on this bill from  story says that this bill is considered a routine april fifteenth tax bill but it's become the setting for a fight over health savings accounts those are tax advantage options available to people who have a high deductible health insurance plan and health savings account users can set aside tax deductible money and invest it and then pay no taxes if they use the money for medical purposes democrats want to require individuals to prove that their tax fee free withdrawals from the accounts are being used for medical purposes pointing to health savings account money spent at escort services and casinos according to c q today such reporting the democrats say intends to improve tax compliance and non medical expenditures are tax republicans and companies that benefit from the accounts of adding back arguing against the rush to judgment and warning about consequences for the roughly seven million people with health savings accounts the white house issued a veto threat late yesterday signaling signaling out the provision among its reasons again that from c q today and the vote underway on a motion to recommit the taxpayer assistance and simplification act h r fifty seven one team presidential candidates preparing for their final democratic presidential candidate debate tomorrow in pennsylvania after that debate with hillary clinton and barack obama will show you clips spin room comments and open our phones for your comments we'll have that live on c span two beginning at ten p m eastern time that's tomorrow when we'll have reaction to the democratic presidential debate in philadelphia pennsylvania today senator hillary rodham clinton attended the capital conference await convention she was a guest speaker at a lunch organized by the newspaper association of america and the american society of newspaper editors who were the conference sponsors while this vote underway will show you some of her question and answer from that appearance senator clinton i'm paul  the st petersburg times in an interview today with adam smith our political editor you talked about the importance of counting the sentiment of florida voters as the democratic nominee is selected and yet last fall you joined the boycott against campaigning in florida along with all the other party leaders and candidates if the sentiment in florida is so important now why did you join that boycott and do you regret that decision well i think there are two different issues at work here well those of us who were running agreed that we would not actively campaign in either florida or michigan and we did not with a few exceptions but i think it's fair to say we did not and i think that that was  a decision that was you know driven by the reality that we had these four early states that people were focusing on at the time but that is not the same issue because nothing i signed at all said what would happen with the votes once they were cast all of us kept our names on the ballot in florida and in fact there were many different ways that the democratic party could have resolved this and still can that would respect the one point seven million or more floridians who came out and voted they certainly followed the campaign avidly from all of the national press coverage and the coverage that was available to them locally in papers like yours and they expressed their opinions and the republicans put florida in a difficult position to start with but they quickly resolved what to do with the delegates from the votes in florida and our party has not and i have called and will continue to call on the democratic party to make a decision that respects the votes of the people of florida and gives those votes due consideration in seating the delegates that will go to the convention in denver there are lots of ways this could be accomplished the decision is really up to the democratic national committee and i hope that they will attempt to resolve this but i think it would be a grave mistake for the democrats to disregard the highest turnout in primary history and florida they didn't apparent maybe the lesson here is we shouldn't campaign anywhere just leave people alone and let them follow the campaign and make up their mind but whatever they have expressed their views they have had their vote certified by the florida secretary of state it's part of the popular vote that has  been in this campaign and the only remaining question is how will the democratic party fairly take into account what the voters of florida said in trying to determine who the delegates are to go to the our city for the fortieth anniversary of dr king's assassination and in our majority african american city after you left i think there was a question that many voters had about what role race should play in this election so could you talk to us a little bit about what role you believe race or play in the selection well i think that  there's been a lot of discussion in this campaign for very obvious reasons given the fact that we have an african american and a woman running for the democratic nomination and i think that to what both sarah bomb and i have tried to convey in the election is that people should look at us as individuals assess our qualifications our read serve as president the plans we have put forth our track record in actually delivering results for people and it's inescapable that race and gender which has gotten i must say much less attention are part of who we are but we both wish to be judged on the sum of our parts and that is our life experiences our record in public service and so much else so i have certainly been hopeful that that would be the approach that the vast majority of voters take and i'm aware people can vote for you or against you based on anything and i'm sure that race and gender are taken into account by voters and evaluated the different scales and therefore resulting in different conclusions but i believe that what has been incredibly important about this campaign is that never again never ever again well any child growing up in america think that an african american or a woman cannot be the president of united states and i think that is an incredible i margaret sullivan editor of the buffalo news hello margaret hi senator clinton there's been a lot of talk in recent days about the economic hardships suffered by working class people in places pennsylvania and i dare say upstate new york separately you have been criticized for promises you made in your second senate campaign about bringing a couple of hundred thousand jobs to update new york and you have admitted in hindsight that you may have been quoting a little exuberant with those numbers more realistically then how would you improve the economic conditions of suffering american you know margaret when i was campaigning for the senate in two thousand i had every every hope that al gore would be the president and that we would build on the economic successes of the ninety's taking into account business cycles the need for adjustments and everything that obviously happens in an economy over time if you remember we had a balanced budget a projected surplus of five point six trillion dollars we had seen in the previous eight years the creation of twenty two point seven million jobs and more people lifted out of poverty that any time and we were just beginning to really implement and see the results from some of the innovative economic approaches like empowerment zones a new market tax credits and the like exuberant because i really believe we could create a lot more jobs because i had thought in particular upstate new york hadn't had the opportunity to take advantage of some of the benefits and be creative about how to do just that well that didn't come to pass and unfortunately much of the positive economic policies that we saw in the ninety's were slowly steadily dismantled and we all know that we went from that five point six trillion dollars projected surplus to now having the largest deficit we've ever had at three hundred eleven billion dollars and a nine trillion dollar debt and increasing dependence not only on foreign oil but on foreign money so we have a sensually undermined our cassidy to do some of what i think would have worked and which i hope to get back to i'm  fortunate to be the president so there are a number of approaches here number one we must do more to make sure there is nothing in our tax code that actually advantages companies that move jobs overseas i mean it sounds almost absurd to say this but there still are and those provisions should be excised it is hard to explain to somebody who's lost their job in buffalo new york or erie pennsylvania why that job has been moved somewhere else and the people who moved it actually get a tax benefit because they get to defer paying taxes on their profits as long as they don't repatriate them anything that gives an advantage with our tax money has to be removed from the tax code number one number two it seems to me that we've got to get back to rewarding work instead of wealth and the feeling among so many hardworking americans is that the deck is kind of stacked against them that they are working harder than ever but under president bush they've lost a thousand dollars on average in income prior eight years the typical american family had a seven thousand dollars increase in income so this is just not adding up for people and that's why i have said i will let the tax cuts on people making more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars a year expire go back to the ninety's tax rate and i have put forth a very comprehensive agenda four hundred billion dollars in middle class tax cuts to help people and a restart their own engines paying for health care saving for retirement more affordable college and so much else i also think we've got to start investing as a nation in creating new jobs and here three examples that i have talked about on the campaign trail number one i have proposed a strategic energy fund that would invest similar to a manhattan project idea in energy technologies new renewable energies really unleash the innovative genius of america i would fund that by taking the oil subsidies away from the from them the tax subsidies that go to our oil companies now sometimes when i talk about the government investing in clean renewable energy someone will say sometimes an editorial board but then the united states is picking winners and losers the government has some kind of a policy or a plan but we already do we subsidize oil companies we subsidize the nuclear industry we subsidize pharmaceuticals in the medicare part d program we subsidize health insurance companies in the medicare program we subsidize a lot of industries to choices of already been made but we're making the wrong choices we're stuck in twentieth century choices instead of twenty first century choices so that's why i want to invest in clean renewable energy and i believe we can put at least five million people to work and we can do that margaret in western new york and i have advocated for ten demonstration projects to figure out how we're going to do carbon  sequestration and storage we've got to figure out how to make coal cleaner we can't turn our backs immediately on coal we get fifty two percent of our electricity from it think how much further down the road we'd be in trying to figure out how we do this but we can't get this administration to make that investment there is a power plant outside of buffalo in a place called tonawanda that is desperate to turn into using this kind of technology to figure out how to make it work they would put several thousand people to work both in the construction and then at the plant but they can't do it without some government help just like we've subsidized oil to go explore and extract and all the rest we need to be doing this for different forms of energy secondly we've got to invest in our infrastructure and rebuild america we've seen examples from the bridge collapsing in minneapolis the levies collapsing in new orleans we need a construction project that will put at least three million people to work fixing our roads our bridges our tunnels our water systems our mass transit we are falling behind other nations it is not only in our physical infrastructure we are now probably twenty fourth in the world in broadband high speed internet access we used to be number one and now we're twenty four twenty five and finally as i referenced in my remarks i think ending george bush's war on science will unleash creativity and new jobs we've seen some of that beginning in buffalo with our investment in bioinformatics but we've got to do even more and going along with all of this has to be a commitment to education and training and i would start in preschool i know that's a long term solution but if we don't do it we're never going to catch up it's the best way to close the achievement gap between white and minority youngsters and it will help better prepare kids and we've got to get back to more technical training and apprenticeship and skills programs you know a few years ago the auto dealers from new york came to see me and they were distraught they said we have openings right now across new york for six hundred auto mechanics nobody's training them anymore we've shut down all those programs we have this attitude that we want everybody to go to college well that's very nice but the fact is sixty percent of our kids will not go to a graduate from college and we're doing so little for them right now so the auto dealer said we've given up there's we can't figure out where we're going to get this supply and these are good jobs but people have to have basic math skills and so much else so they decide to open up their own school and what i've seen are businesses and labor unions and others coming together with community colleges across america to try to do this but we're not doing it on a broad enough scale so i actually believe we could get once again to a a very focused approach toward job creation unleashing our economy cutting back on this attitude that we've seen in the last seven years that you know we really can't do very much it's we have to leave it to the marketplace and the final thing i would say about that is we now are spending about five hundred billion dollars in defense spending and under this administration we have steadily export and outsourced a lot of our defense jobs and i think that's a mistake i was just in indiana with senator evan by who's one of my supporters there and we spent a whole day going to defense plants in indiana and every single one of them they told us about a near miss a near miss and then one fatality to a near misses where that this pentagon keeps saying well we're going to outsource this particular production we're going to not do it in indiana we're going to do it somewhere else the really tragic story was a company named magna quench employed a couple hundred people in valparaiso indiana and it made magnets that were essential to the guidance of smart bombs precision guided missiles that you've seen go down chimneys and the company was bought by a chinese company and they wanted to move production which would not only mean losing the jobs but losing the intellectual property and the bush administration did nothing so we no longer manufacture the magnets that we need to buy for precision guided missiles so we've lost the job and there is no doubt that the chinese know exactly how to do what we once did pretty well is a big fight right now going on senator mccain and president bush are on one side senator by is leading the fight and i'm with them on the other side to prevent a change in the law that would and the need for us to get specialty metals from the united states titanium and others that are essential to defense production so this question about jobs is not only about economic trends it's about choices choices we make or fail to make and i think we need a president again who makes the right choices to grow and keep good jobs and give people a chance at rising incomes again in our country of shiraz in southern iran and the iranians now say that that was caused by old ammunition that somehow exploded and killed twelve people and wounded well that's a very interesting question a number of levels we don't know what actually happened in that mosque in southern iran but there is certainly another credible evidence going back several years to know that mosques have been used as staging grounds and storage depots for weapons and for fighters to infiltrate into iran to be part of the revolutionary guard particularly to house is not in order gentleman from georgia madam speaker is it not true to that you of the deliberate or in the decider of rules in this house change the outcome of that vote is that true rules of this house are being followed chair rules on questions of order ma'am i don't know how else to put it other than maybe a point of order yielded to the gentleman to raise a point of order with a gentleman please raise a point of order he has not yet raised a point of order point of order is his is the chair responsibility to rule question is on passage all those in favor will say i although the polls request and now a five minute vote on final passage of the i r s tax collection bill h r five seven one nine hundred that interaction following the vote on a motion to recommit which is viewed as an indirect way of defeating a bill so now a five minute vote on final passage of the cyrus tax collection bill which repealed cyrus authority to use private companies to collect back taxes a five minute vote underway here while we watch this vote we will return to senator hillary clinton from earlier today speaking and answering questions at a luncheon organized by the newspaper association of america and the american society of newspaper editors will return to that now others with whom they chose to contest so it's very clear that there is something that went on there now you know i took a lot of criticism during this campaign from my opponent because i voted for a bill to label the revolutionary guard a terrorist organization and i did because it is and there isn't any doubt that it is and that it has consistently supported all penetrators that are so lethal to our troops and they have provided a lot of technical assistance and there isn't much doubt in my mind that they were deeply involved in some capacity in what's been going on in b and you know because i voted that way to say look we have to focus on the threat posed by the revolution guard which is the arm of the clerical leadership and which does export terrorism you know not just to iraq but we believe is was behind the bombing of the jewish center in buenos aires behind actions in other parts of the middle east in the gulf including probably khobar towers where we lost american service members and many others that sightings that doesn't mean we also should be engaged in diplomacy and in fact i think going after the revolutionary guard and labeling them a terrorist organization actually gives us a stronger hand at the diplomatic table we just can't get this administration to get to that table where we would use both carrots and sticks to see whether it is at all possible to influence the behavior of the iranians in their multiple divided decision making and i think that  without saying anything out of school i'm sure that there are many covert actions going on that are under way to protect and defend the maliki government as well as our american forces and civilian interests inside iraq but i have to just emphasize that from my perspective the approach that the bush admin est ministration has taken toward iran has been a loser it has neither change behaviors nor produce results nor put us on a path where we could see any possibility of changing or influencing behavior so that we could th have a better sense of what our real options might be down the road and it's part of a string of foreign policy actions that are at best incoherent and in inconsistent if anybody can tell me what our policy is toward china i would love to hear it if you can tell us what our real policy is toward russia if you can explain why we walked away from the middle east for years and took actions like forcing an election on them that included hamas and led to a much worse outcome that many of us were worried about to start with we go around the world and whether by design or inadvertence or just unintended  consequences we have so many difficult problems awaiting us and iran is at the top of the list and i think that we have to have a much smarter approach and i've advocated you know both that carrot and that stick and i think that would be  what i would take to try to create beginning at lower levels of diplomatic engagement some ongoing process because ultimately if we do feel that iran is moving in a way that for example will result in nuclear weapons you know they had a big announcement this week that they've added thousands of more centrifuges that natanz if we believe that happening the world has to have seen us attempting some kind of diplomatic effort before we were to say we would escalate our relationship with them and that has not happened so it's a very you know it's a very intriguing question but it has layers of meaning as to what we're going to be doing and how we're going to do it and i just wish that we would start seeing some more coherent effective policy besides saber rattling out of president bush vice president cheney senator thank you very much for your  and that was senator clinton from earlier today both senator clinton and senator barack obama preparing for tomorrow's a b c news democratic presidential debate in philadelphia we will show your reaction to that debate our coverage begins at ten live on c span two we'll show you clips from the debate spin room comments and we'll open our phones for your comments that's live on c span to beginning at ten a ten p m eastern time tomorrow in the morning hours of thursday will air the debate and we'll do that at five thirty a m that will be thursday morning just before washington journal which begins at seven vote concluding here on final passage of the iris tax collection bill the bill considered a routine april fifteenth tax bill has become the setting for a fight over health care savings accounts too that according to c q today the white house says issued a veto threat singling out the provision among its reasons to veto the bill well watch the final moments of the vote here the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from illinois mr davis to suspend the rules and pass h r fifty five seventeen on which is our audit the clerk will report the title of the bill h r fifty and as you just heard a five minute vote now naming a post office facility in texas and while this vote is underway we will show you today's pentagon briefing good afternoon pleased to be with you all today many of you know this is my as a father of new more and twins so if i doze off here at the podium please forgive me and nudge me i have a very brief opening statement of them will be happy to take your questions the defense department and graduates iraqi security forces on their successful run rescue of journalist richard butler yesterday the veteran camera man was kidnapped by terrorists on february the tenth while on assignment for c b s news in basra he was held hostage for more than two months and then was finally freed yesterday when soldiers from iraq's fourteenth division acting on a tip rate of the house outside of basra captured a terrorist and liberated the camera man the operation showed great initiative and demonstrated the increasing capability of iraq's a curate he forces to take on the terrorists and extremists who are trying to derail the progress in iraq of course the iraqi military still has a long way to go as was demonstrated by their uneven performance in bars for a couple of weeks ago however it is slowly but that in a matter of less than two hours the secretary will meet with admiral donald he has as you know spent much of the morning up on the hill testifying before the house armed services committee but it is on his schedule for this afternoon to spend i believe about a half an hour with admiral donald this is you know was outlined in the original tasking letter the secretary put out in the wake of this incident in which he gave admiral donald sixty days to can conduct this investigation but he also wanted a policeman ery brief on the progress of the investigation so that's what he's going to get this afternoon as i think we've made clear at the outset we will not be discussing any of his findings initial if they may be in till such time as the the investigation is complete and i still think that has some time to go yet i think it's not due to be complete until late in may my math is  of forces in iraq i mean i think that's really an m f i question now if you want me to sort of sit here and stand here and and offer up theories as to why indeed we're at north of one hundred sixty thousand troops in iraq as i think it would be inaccurate to to characterize three b c t set out as completely out at this point we're in the process of bringing the seventeenth b c t f out it is not completely out of country yet my understanding is in talking with them and f i f a that the seventeenth brigade combat team is in the process of exiting the country but is not has not completely done so yet so that could account for some of those increased numbers but as you pointed out we make it a real priority to have as we call it left right seat in which you have returning units and deploying units overlapping for some period of time so as they can show each other the lay of the land and so that the incoming units are familiar with the territory before they assume complete responsibility so but you know clearly it is our goal and you heard it from the president from the secretary defense from the chairman from the commanding general of m n f i we want to be down by are we are determined we pledged to be down to fifteen brigade combat teams in iraq come the end of july vesely that will get us to significantly less than two hundred sixty thousand troops but there are also  ers that go to support these troops and one of the reasons our numbers have remained higher than people as expect had expected was the fact that general petraeus felt it necessary to retain more enablers even as he was drawing down some of the combat forces  because those enablers not just helped our guys but help the iraqis as they get on their feet my understanding is that general petraeus has found the ability to do without some of those enablers so you will be seeing more  coming out as you see these brigade combat teams coming out as well i'm sorry if it's not a satisfactory answer i'm just not the expert on that one just what is the secretary say on objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table without objection the title is amended house is not in order will entertain one minute requests for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina to revise and extend my remarks without objection metaphysic i rise today to recognize an historic anniversary of the national christensen foundation which was the first charitable organization created under a congressional charter and the celebrating one hundred twenty five years of service people who recognize the kryten to name often recall only the maternity homes that were usually hidden and welcome girls and young women seeking support during their unplanned pregnancies much less is known about the influence of the national network of affiliated crittenton agencies and their lasting impact on the social work profession the unique relationship between the national kryten foundation and the kryten family is of agencies is based on the belief that addressing compelling social issues in the united states is best done through a network of independent local agencies supported by a national body there are now over twenty three kryten ten agencies across the country together they have provided over twenty two hundred years of continuous service to five million vulnerable girls young women and their families man a speaker i ask you and my colleagues to join me in wishing the national kryten foundation s and family of agencies across the country happy anniversary and our best wishes for another one hundred twenty five years of success tax code over sixty seven thousand pages long and two thousand and seven individual taxpayers spent over three billion hours complying with the federal income tax laws individual spent twenty six and a half billion for tax software tax preparers postage and other costs related to filing their federal income taxes and corporation spend over one hundred fifty six billion dollars to comply with the federal tax laws americans mason two and a half trillion dollars to the i r s but the cost to our economy is much greater despite this the majority party is forcing a six hundred fifty four billion dollar tax increase on the american people the largest tax increase in american history it is time to scrap the suppressive tax code it's time to lay take a look at the fair tax or the flat tax as a viable alternatives to our overly burdensome tax code and it's time to stop punishing tax payers and pass fundamental tax reform and with that i yield other for the one minute request for what purpose does the gentlewoman from texas rise in my remarks without objection madam speaker today is tax day april fifteenth and that's why the democrats have risen today to be able to tell the american people we're on your side the taxpayers this is a simple case an act of two thousand and eight may cost twenty two million dollars but i can assure you that it pales in comparison to the money that my friend the spending on the un ending war in iraq i'm glad to stand with the taxpayers of america making sure that the elderly and the disabled are exempted from liability for employment taxes were payments to home care service providers they deserve  respect and today we give it to him i am glad that we are requiring a written notice the taxpayers of the eligibility of the income earned income tax credit it's a shame that so many think that there's so much fraud for hardworking americans who don't file for their taxes who deserve it and i'm delighted to stand with americans to repeal the authority of the i r s to enter into private debt collection those guys who have harassed the elderly shuttin hardworking americans because they are private bounty hunters today we stand with hardworking americans we will do so as well when we honor our troops to clear the wars and bring them home and reinvest in america you know back are there for their one minute for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois ri without objection thank you madam speaker is in essence the third day in the legislative schedule where i've come to the floor to talk about energy prices when the when this democrat majority took over the house to the price of a barrel of crude dollars fifty eight dollars a barrel today it hovers around one hundred eleven dollars a barrel in two thousand and six a democrat leadership promised lower gas prices what we've seen in reality is higher gas prices we see a negative change which is cool cause bitterness in rural america with the high increasing costs to travel around rural america all we're asking is for or a plan to bring on more supply i've been in this well numerous times in this congress to talk about coal to liquid technologies we shouldn't limit to that we should talk about expanding renewable fuels we should talk cannot continental shelf without talk about anwar we need to bring more supplied to lower the cost of field because the average american sinners are tired of paying these high gas prices and are hurt the economy is country h r five seven one nine to include corrections in spelling punctuation section numbering and cross referencing and the insertion of appropriate headings that objection m today mr mack of florida from monday april fourteenth in the balance of the week and this trip alone in new jersey for today without objection the requests are granted for what purposes the gentleman from texas rise madam speaker i ask unanimous consent that today following legislative business in any special orders heretofore entered into the following members may be permitted to address the house revise and extend their remarks and include their  extraneous material myself mr poe for april twenty second mr jones from north carolina april twenty second mr sallie april sixteenth mr weller today and april the sea state action not a speaker for what purposes the gentleman from new york writes about it speaker i ask unanimous consent that today following legislative business and any special orders heretofore entered into the following members may be printed permitted to address the house for five minutes to revise and extend their remarks and to iowa without objection of the speaker's announced policy of january eighteenth two thousand and seven and under a previous order of the house the following members are recognized for five minutes each ms giffords of arizona for what purposes the gentlewoman from consent speak out of order without objection madam speaker today is april the fifteenth tax day right now millions of americans are hurrying to report their incomes to the i r s usually i r s stands for internal revenue service but today it might as well stand for iraq revenue supplier because so much of our tax revenue is paying for the occupation of iraq just as still like the noble prize winning economist healthcare collated that the occupation will cost at least three trillion dollars that means that the occupation will cost each of our three hundred million citizens ten thousand dollars or an incredible forty thousand dollars for a family of four america's hard working families are struggling to keep their heads above water as we think into a deep what i call iraq recession yet they're being asked to hand over forty thousand dollars most of which goes to the foreign nations that are lending us the money to keep the occupation going and that forty thousand dollars madam speaker will get much bigger if the occupation goes on for another few years for a hundred years as some cheerleaders for the occupation are discussing what have we gotten for our occupation money general petraeus told us last week that the security situation in iraq has gotten much better but nineteen of our incredibly brave soldiers died last week and our top military leaders continue to warn us that our obsession with iraq is breaking our military and that we may wake up one day to find that we can meet a real threat to our national security next month the i r s will mail out economic stimulus checks i'm glad that that relief is on the way but the best economic stimulus plan would be to end the occupation of iraq the american people agree a recent new york times c b s poll found that eighty nine percent of the american people believe that the cost of the occupation has contributed to our economic problems last month the progressive caucus put forth an alternative budget that shows that we can actually achieve an end to the occupation in iraq and reorder for our spending priorities the budget is truly remarkable we were able to fully fund the education that our children deserve and that our nation must have to remain competitive in the global economy we're able to invest in green jobs that could employ millions of our citizens and put our nation on the path to the energy independence we must have to fuel our economy and ensure our national security and we were able to provide health care coverage to every american who la not only fulfilling our promise to care for each other but making our country stronger and more competitive in the process but instead of revving up these engines of economic growth and social justice the ministration will soon send t congress yet another request for emergency iraq funding this time around the request will be for one hundred eight billion dollars man a speaker i agree that we must spend money on iraq but not the way the administration wants to spend it it wants an open ended occupation instead we must fully fund the safe responsible redeployment of our troops the military contractors out of iraq and we must help not do it all but we must help to reconstruct iraq we've all heard of the so called pottery barn rule if you break it you own it we need to expand to that saying if you break it you have a moral obligation to help rebuild it is time for the madness and madam speaker is time to bring our troops home get our fiscal house in order give the iraqi people back their sovereignty and help them rebuild their country and their lives about as speaker of the process gasoline goes up every day and congress is partially to blame the price of crude oil is increasing because demand is increasing our domestic energy supply cannot meet that demand the global demand for all is also rising with the industrial asian of china and increased demand for all leads to increased prices for many products including prior products made out of plastic the problem is that congress has made it difficult for our supply to meet that demand there is a solution to the problem the solution is to increase our supply be exploring domestic energy sources and drilling in anwar like it or not crude oil is still the energy base of our nation and like every other country on the planet the united states does not take advantage of its own natural resources when congress abolished tax credits for domestic exploration and production congress effectively abolished reasonable all prices and then raise taxes on all companies to eighteen billion dollars taxes that are eventually passed on to us the consumer thus higher prices at the pump and this congress decided to even reward binns a whale and dictatorship they had been his nationalized oil company with a large tax break a tax break they did not give to american oil companies it's common knowledge that if you tax something you're going to get less of it if you tax all you get less of it that's what less production and less crude oil less oil on the market equals higher prices  pump and if we look at the world crude oil reserves eighty percent of the world crude oil is controlled by foreign national last oil companies we call them opec six percent is controlled by russian companies and only six percent of the world's oil reserves is controlled by american owned oil companies you know those american oil companies that are capitalistic that have stockholders what we call them americans and those companies are making about eight percent eight and a half percent profit so the world is controlled by zero opec not american oil companies we may be the word power but the united states does not control the world all market the only control we have is over our domestic energy supply which we don't take advantage of because of us restrictions on offshore drilling and exploration we have succumbed to the environmental fear myth that we cannot drill safely offshore other nations including britain norway holland  denmark take full advantage of their natural resources and even permit all shore drilling and the nor see that area of the world where offshore drilling is the most difficult and they do it without environmental damage we can increase our energy supply and reduce the price of gasoline at the pump but also allowing drilling and war on top of the height demand for crude oil there's a heightened a man for new refineries madam speaker i represent twenty one percent of the nation's refineries in southeast texas but we don't have any new ones the last all refineries built thirty two years ago are all refineries have been punished by bureaucracy and unnecessary federal regulations too many unnecessary federal regulations too many government controls too many high taxes the second highest corporate income tax in the world and what happens they leave town they go somewhere else we must lift these burdens and encourage refinery development our gasoline prices will eventually drop as soon as we build new refineries and we drill offshore and we drill in anwar the high prices of gasoline have thrown the airline industry into chaos twenty two percent of the nation's jet fuel is made in my district but one example madam speaker it cost airline company forty four dollars a minute to allow a plane to idle on the runway thus every plane that takes off that's been sitting there about thirty minutes cost fifteen hundred dollars an additional oil prices the high gas prices even affect the one hundred seventy thousand independently owned gas stations in the country they don't know they no longer make a profit on selling fuel they hope to my one cent on every gallon so they are thrilled if they make that penny so they make money by selling lottery tickets donuts and beer that's how they make their profit it's time for us in congress to encourage more domestic oil production lift the restrictions to offshore drilling and take care of ourselves we must stop relying on unstable  regions in the world and thomas pompous dictators who hold americans hostage with their crude oil we have a problem but we can solve it otherwise we'll be parking our vehicles on the side of the road riding bicycles to work then blissfully wondering where all the crude oil went and that's just the way it is i yield back speaker appreciate this opportunity to address the house for a few moments i think it's very appropriate for us to pause for a moment here and just reflect on where we are as a nation as a people when it comes to our economy and our financial house this is a perfect taney is tax day it's important that this house of representatives be mindful of the difficulties that the american people are faced with a matter speak a millions of american people and families are absolutely hanging on by their fingernails they're on the verge of losing their homes many have already and so much of it has been because of bad policies by their government it is important for us to understand that madam speaker so much of this could possibly have been prevented we moved quicker had we made different policies this is a very sobering time two major events happen today one is the american people many are in line at post offices as we speak trying to mate the midnight deadline to pay their taxes others are struggling to do so others are having difficulty even beginning to comprehend the complexities and the complications of a tax code that even if they sat down to read it it would take them over one year trying to read the tax code let alone try to understand it just the volume of trying to read it and madam speaker when congress must take into consideration how difficult that is the fact that the american people many are not even taking the credit or getting the deductions that they should have because they don't understand that twenty five percent of american families that are titled to the earn income tax credit don't even get it because they don't understand how to do it last year over sixty five percent of american families had to get a private person from the outside to come help them with their taxes that has greased up twenty five percent since just ten years ago it was forty and in one nine hundred fifty it was just twenty percent that did that the complexity of our tax code is just out of whack many are gathered around the kitchen tables right now trying to find out how they're going to have and made a madam speaker the other phenomenal event in our economy did took place today was the merger of delta airlines and northwest airlines making the largest airline company in the world that is certainly rome to celebrate but it's very important that we be very m to both delta and northwest to under can understand the implications of that to have the sensitivity that there are many thousands of families that are m packed and that we do not use the word synergy to equate with a loss of jobs but that there are no jobs lost we in congress must have the empathy of putting ourselves into the mindset of the american people and we must show that we understand the difficulties that the american people are faced with that we understand the difficulties of knowing whether they wake up the next morning their car may be repossessed they may have a foreclosure notice our policies must be here in this house of representatives going forward to keep americans in their home even if it means coming up with the policies and moving as fast as we could if we could move with lickety split speed to save wall street bear stearns and madam speaker i believe that was the right thing to do because had we not global markets would have cascaded and we would have had an extraordinary world calamity in the financial markets but just as aggressively as we move with those policies that helped wall street and burns  move to help our homeowners and our families and i'm filing madam speaker the real elephant facing us in the room the real moment threat economically and financially to this country is our overwhelming debt madam speaker it is staggering to look at the debt that we are and we every dime we are spending is on borrowed money and we have spent madam speaker as i conclude in the last year and the last five six years more money far more money from from foreign governments than in the entire history of this country matters because that's the state of our economy and it's very important we reflect it from the perspective of the american people and i thank you for this opportunity fired mr burgess of texas thank you madam speaker you know it said nothing in the world is certain except death and taxes and i'll tell you from being a physician in my former life that sometimes even death is a little less complicated than our tax system complexity the tax code is a consequence of countless of deductions and exemptions that are aim not at collecting revenue but steering a social agenda and the result is a federal law that's fraught with opportunities for avoiding taxes pay and full of loopholes to be exploited all at the expense of fellow americans a criticizing the tax code is as american as apple pie and baseball and for good reason because every year americans spend billions of hours and billions of dollars and that's not counting the billions of hours that we spend complaining about the tax code time is money and time should be spent growing the economy and creating jobs and there is a strong prescription for real change in our tax code we caught a glimpse of it when ronald reagan cut the tax cut in half back in one thousand nine hundred eighty six as a result of that reform the economy grew revenues increased and jobs were created the prescription is pretty simple flatten the tax broaden the base and shift the burden away from families and small businesses and we do have a practical and effective blueprint is called the flat tax back in  robert hall with alvin reversed the proposed of radically simple structure that would transform the internal revenue service and our economy by creating a single tax rate for all americans today several states of implemented a single tax a single rate tax structure for state income tax and from utah to massachusetts citizens are realizing the benefit in colorado a single tax a single rate tax generated so much income that it was reduced ten years after its implementation in indiana the economy boomed after a single rate went into effect in two thousand and three and since that time the corporate income tax receipts have grown but two hundred fifty percent now several people in congress are working on the problem i have a bill h r ten forty which is a voluntary flat tax a companion bill was introduced by the senior senator from tennessee just this past week we have bills from david dreier from general from california paul ryan from wisconsin all trying to accomplish the same goal and it is so simple you have a single rate you have a single piece of paper you put in your name just a little bit of a dent if it cation data right in your income there's a line for personal exemptions calculate your deductions for personally exemptions and calculate your tax income multiplied by a flat rate subtract the taxes already withheld and you're done and what that takes not even thirty seconds no more expensive tax attorney bills no more hours of stressful research no more headaches it's much less costly saving the taxpayers more than one hundred billion dollars per year and it would increase tax compliance the result increase in personal savings and there's a stimulus package that would have an immediate effect on our american economy a recent polling by a group called american solutions showed that over eighty percent of americans favor an optional one page tax reform one page tax return form with a single rate now we hear a lot of talk about change this year you practically cannot turn on television without without some political commercial talking about change well let's consider how change could improve the most complicated of institutions the internal revenue service and more importantly consider how that change could deliver pos parity and return time the precious commodity of time to the american taxpayer now that's a stimulus package worthy of everyone's vote  on the record there are without objection gentlemens woman is recognized for five minutes thank you madam speaker the world is beginning to understand what my constituents have known for far too long higher food prices and hi commodity prices are destroying prosperity for millions and millions of people here at home and abroad whether there is a hungry person in toledo ohio or in haiti the rising costs of basic food are really placing the world's marginalized and poor in even a tighter squeeze getting in the front of devastation that higher commodity prices can cause is a challenge to all of us while i am pleased that the leaders of the international monetary fund and the world bank have called for half a billion dollars more to feed the poor of the world i'm deeply troubled that these leaders have pointed to the same tired rhetoric in diagnosing the cause of these rising prices has been very interesting for me to hear them say they're blaming higher food prices on the production of ethanol and biodiesel in agricultural america which is actually a new value added market for our farmers it's actually a new market that's taking land that's just laying fallow for years where we've paid commodity payments and got nothing now we're beginning to reuse some of that land again the real culprit for rising food prices is rising oil prices our world is facing a precise a crisis precipitated by the greater competition for dwindling supplies of rural energy that has caused all the prices of basic goods to skyrocket but instead of dealing with that reality of how all is imbedded in every aspect of life in this country and globally they're trying to blame this on the new developing markets a renewable energy yes under current technology biofuels consume some food stocks for the production of fuel corn has been utilized by some ethanol producers for example but to claim that biofuels are the cause of rising food prices that's disingenuous at best look to the rising oil prices at over one hundred thirteen dollars a barrel and this oil dependent economy must become energy independent here at home again and renewable fuels based in agriculture are part of the solution for this country in the world take a look at the rising cost of fertilizer that can be directly attributed to the increasing cost of natural gas and smaller crop sizes according to the recent texas a and m agricultural food policy cent analysis writing fertilizer costs have led to a three million dollar acre reduction in planted corn in the two thousand and six two thousand and seven crop year let's look at another major cause globally of why food prices are going up drought drought world food production has gone down because in australia and eastern europe and because of poor weather in canada and western europe and ukraine we've seen overall production reduced with such world stocks for wheat at thirty year lows buyers are turning to the united states for supplies has the i m f offered suggestions to these nations for dealing with the drought that global warming is causing no they're just blaming america's farmers higher incomes around the world are boosting demand for processed foods in countries such as india and china and this higher demand has skyrocketed the need for products produced across the supply chain now has the i m f sought to better manage the uncontrolled growth in developing country no they're just blaming america's farmers with the us dollar in freefall american agricultural goods have become extremely attractive internationally and of place great demand and foodstuffs production domestically with greater competition for food with more u s exports are weak dollar due to terrible economic policies here at home has decreased the power of americans to purchase food produced right here in our country has the i m f identified the weak dollar as a challenge to millions of americans faced with food shortages of course not they just blame the u s farmer and the new developing market of biofuels with the price of oil reaching over one hundred hundred ten dollars a barrel the world's addiction to oil is driving up the production costs of agricultural products how much do you think it costs to haul a truckload of bell peppers from salinas valley in california to cleveland ohio i cannot except i m f want an attack on the investment in rural america if we follow their formula we would not be growing any food domestically if we were following f said vice we would not be developing the infrastructure in capacity to produce our own renewable energy here at home and help lead the world in a real energy independent transformation of this country madam speaker i thank you very much for giving me the time tonight americans simply must commit times expired to cutting off our oil addiction and restoring energy independence here at home mr jones of north carolina without objection gentleman's recognized for five madam speaker i would like to bring to the attention of the house and to the american people a disturbance situation involving a shortfall in iraq aid package usa today reported that allied countries have paid only two point five million dollars of the more than fifteen point eight billion they players to help rebuild iraq the article further reports not quote the biggest shortfalls in pledges forty one donor countries are from iraq's oil rich neighbors and u s allies namely saudi arabia and kuwait is extremely troubling that some of the countries that may benefit most from a secure and stable iraq particularly its neighbors in the region are not providing the money they pledged to help achieve that goal the united states on the other hand has already spent twenty nine billion dollars to help rebuild iraq and congress has approved an additional sixteen point five billion and unlike the united states which is borrowed money from fo governments to pay its bills many of iraq's neighbors are running record surpluses because of profits their governments received from their national oil companies in two thousand and one a gallon of gasoline cost americans one dollar and forty two cent today that same gallon cost us three dollars and thirty six cents in two thousand and one all was twenty eight dollars per barrel today that same barrel is almost one hundred fourteen dollars many of the countries who all falling short on their pledges to iraq are withholding oil production and causing gas prices to rise on the american consumer these countries have the economic resources to meet their commitments to iraq madam speaker in a letter on their where they of this year i expressed these concerns to secretary rice since then i received a response from the department  re they say they share my concern that for some countries the taste of their assistance to iraq has been too slow the state department also indicates that top officials continue to urge their government to follow through on their pledges and with the increased successes they department is working through me to give me a multilateral forums to encourage donors to meet their pledges during this morning's hearing sector rice also play that she will read double her efforts to encourage allies in the region to pay their way in iraq madam speaker out of fairness to the american taxpayer i am hopeful that these efforts will be successful it is time for arab countries that are running surpluses to start paying their share of the bills in iraq madam speaker i've said many times and said it today at the hearing that is the men and women who are in iraq losing their legs been paralyzed the rest of life and losing their life for this country the least that these arab countries can do make in dollars every time we put gas in our cars it is time that they meet the obligation their pl to fulfill the fifteen point eight billion dollars that they pledged to help rebuild iraq with that madam speaker before our close i just got to continue to bless our men and women in uniform and i ask god to continue to bless america and with that i yield back the balance for what purpose is the gentleman from florida rise then speaker madam speaker i sent to the desk a privilege to report from the committee on rules for filing under the rule the clerk record the title report to accompany house resolution on level no seven resolution providing for consideration up to them h r fifty seven fifteen to ensure continued availability of access to the federal student loan program for students and families objection thank you madam speaker this week is week of the young child and i stand before you and my colleagues this evening to call for the full funding of head start our nation's  education program and for childcare development block grants i understand first hand how important head start and subsidized child care programs are for low income working families i grew up in poverty and i had a single mother suffer from mental illness i relied on support from my extended family community and friends and as a result of the support that i received i was able to focus on school work hard and achieve the american dream however not all children are fortunate enough to have this sort of support system outside of their homes and even with this additional support many of iowa's children could benefit from attending headstart additionally many hardworking low income parents could more easily push their families out of poverty if provided access to affordable and reliable childcare this is why it is that we properly fund head start and childcare development block grants so we can expand enrollment and provide greater support to working families and opportunity to our nation's children four years we have been provided with statistics proving the benefits of head start and affordable child care we know that children enrolled in head start will excel academically have fewer health problems and adapt better both socially and emotionally however to appreciate the fully the benefits madam speaker one simply has to speak with the parents of these outstanding young students and i was second district which i am proud to represent i have been lucky enough to visit a number of head start locations and i have received letters from the parents of a number of these students one of these letters was from trent trina thompson a single hard working parent of two her youngest child attends headstart in iowa city where she shared with me that and i quote the staff and program itself at head start  invaluable to my family and many others it is a well run program that has been vitally beneficial to my daughter and my family unquote ms thompson went on to say quote i can go to work every day secure in the knowledge that my daughter is safe in a positive learning environment with amazing people quote ms thompson is not alone in her praise of these critical programs and the outstanding educators and childcare providers the photo behind me today is a photo of one of these exceptional providers kelly matthews of iowa city is pictured here with children at the child care center she runs in iowa ms matthews works fifty hours a week with the children at this center then she spends additional time filling out paperwork completing continuing education credits shopping for supplies and creating a challenging and exciting curriculum for the children under her care ms matthews does all this for one clear reason quote to change the world unquote but we know this goal isn't easy especially when ms matthews is receiving a very modest salary with no benefits and no paid time off we must do better for  ms matthews better for all the childcare providers and headstart teachers better for the children in iowa and across the country and better for hardworking families unfortunately this year the president failed to stand up our country's children he failed to prioritize their needs forgetting that these children are the key to our country's future success this year the president proposes flat funding for child care that will cause two hundred thousand children to lose access to child care assistance by two thousand and nine the administration also acknowledges that fewer children will be served by heads in headstart under their proposal should these cuts be implemented the kelly matthews of the world will find it even more difficult to make and meets thompsons and their young children will find it next to impossible to secure a spot at their local headstart and this is simply not acceptable i urge all of my colleagues to take a moment this week in honor of the week of the young child to think about the tens of thousands of children you represent that could be provided a wealth of opportunity and hope in their lives if we simply reject the president's budget proposal and choose to invest in the future and well being of our children speaker i rise to express concern about an action taken by this house this past week and let me begin by asking this house who is america's best friend in latin america all the cers pretty loud and clear net is america's best friend in latin america is the democratic republic of colombia a nation of forty two million people the second largest spanish speaking nation in the world a nation which is recognized throughout latin america and frankly throughout the world as united states is most reliable partner in counterterrorism the united states most reliable partner and counter narcotics its republican colombia well this past week the u s house of representatives the democratic majority which controls it voted to turn its back this congress is back on our most reliable partner and latin america sending a terrible signal to all of latin america that is if you're a good friend of the united states you're not very important and you're not a very big priority and when we have an agreement well ignore it ladies and gentlemen we have a trade promotion agreement with colombia and the united states it's a good agreement why is that a good agreement because it's a win win win for ellen oil workers alloys farmers and my manufacturers majority this house an overwhelming bipartisan majority this house voted earlier this past year to pass trade preferences for the andean region for countries like colombia ecuador bolivia and peru and what that trade preferences do is it allows all the products that come in from colombia to enter the united states duty free no taxes  agricultural products and manufactured goods made in colombia and produced in colombia enter the united states duty free however without the trade promotion agreement products made well noise by illinois workers or farm goods like corn and soybeans produced by a lawyer farmers and and of course manufacturers and workers all suffer taxes or tariffs on us in illinois made goods exploited to colombia we've often heard from constituents to say you know trades important in illinois and it just doesn't seem right when one country's products that come in the united states duty free but we don't get reciprocity and the u s palumbi a trade agreement gives us that reciprocity in fact farm organizations will tell you that the u s colombia trade agreement is the best ever negotiated to give us farmers and growers and producers access to a foreign market and when it comes to manufactured goods eighty five percent of the manufactured goods export into colombia would be duty and mediately my district i have eight thousand constituents union members who work for a company which makes the yellow bulldozers and yellow construction equipment right now those bulldozers made in america suffer a fifteen percent tariff which means the cost of that product is fifteen percent more making illinois manufactured construction equipment like bulldozers and mining trucks fifteen percent more expensive but also less competitive with asian competition ladies and gentlemen we need this trade promotion agreement and we need to have it brought to the floor for an up or down vote because i believe has brought to the floor for an up or down vote majority this house would agree that we need to continue to expand our markets overseas for all my manufactured goods and l i farm products as well as american foreign products american manufactured goods it's a good agreement now there are those who say you know colombia yeah they're our partner and their course the oldest democracy in latin america but you know there's been violence in that country and historically the right you know present a rebate when he was elected pledged to defeat the fark the left wing narco trafficking terrorist group which has troubled the nation of colombia over the last forty years and he's made tremendous progress in fact present  rebate today enjoys eighty percent approval eight out of ten colombians approve of the leadership president ray ban you look at this congress as house representatives this congress says an eighteen percent approval rating so clearly the colombians think more of their president than the american people do this congress and at the same time as he's made progress defeating the left wing narco trafficking fark seventy three percent of the colombian people believe he has made colombia more secure and safer while respecting human rights in fact today the murder rate in columbia is lower than washington d c it's lower than baltimore in fact it's safer in colombia than it is in our nation's capital ladies and gentlemen the u s climate trade promotion agreement is a good agreement for american workers american farmers american manufacturers let's bring it to a vote  under the speaker's announced policy of january eighteenth two thousand and seven gentlewoman from the district of columbia miss norton is recognized for sixty minutes as the designee of the majority leader thank  madam speaker this is a special day for all americans none more so then the people i represent the residents of the district of columbia and so i have come this evening  offer some remarks remarks that i think are particularly justified today when the residents of the district of columbia like all other american citizens are paying their federal income taxes the difference is they are doing so without any voting representation on the floor of the house or the senate first i beg with some gratitude to my colleagues in the so called blue dogs for whom this hour had been claimed but who gave it to me this evening because of the subject matter of this special order i very much appreciate their support for those of you who don't know the blue dogs are they are more conservative members of the senate of the house six forgive me  they supported the d c voting rights bill that indeed passed the house one of the first we hadn't been here six months i don't think we've been here more than four months before this bill to give the district of columbia citizens the citizens of the nation's capital voting rights only in this chamber the people's house was indeed passed by the house of representatives mind you the only house that is affected and a nation known more for its incremental ism then for rapid change to effect justice we have accepted the notion that we must begin with the house the people's house and after more than two hundred years of every obligation met by every other citizen we think it is not too much to ask that the residents of the nation's capital have the vote at least in the people's house we're asking for no more than that i thanks go especially to the speaker of the house nancy pelosi who made it a priority to pass this bill and put her full energy behind it without her willingness to bring it to the floor to make clear that she as the leader the first woman to lead the house of representatives wanted to put her signature on this bill and asked for members on both sides of the artist support until he got his bill passes then with his every step of the way these two leaders have stood for full representation and equality for americans in so many ways no one should be surprised at the leadership they have given us on this bill i have two very specially mentioned congressman tom davis who doggedly started us on what has been a truly bipartisan path when i was in the minority and he indeed became the chief spy answer of the house only bill discovered indeed a partner for us the state of utah which barely missed getting a house the last census and they missed it for reasons i have to put into the record and utah since many of its citizens willingly agreed to go away and become missionaries when they are young for a few years of their lives they of course are missionaries for their mormon church and they're coming home to their families like others who come home state of utah one of them count it since they remain residents took the matter all the way to the supreme court and because of the way the census bureau and the administrators process had had ruled the court allowed the census to stand and all these missionaries exercising their freedom of religion their freedom of speech while residents of lobbying residents of this state lost their status the say the least residents of utah were not joyful about this and they have joined us in what would seem to be the example par excellence of win win in our country heavily republican district in state some would say the most republican state in the union big city in the united states tends to be democratic this one is joined together to wash politically nobody gains nobody loses why hasn't this bill passed while it's almost passed and we'll get into that in a minute just a few more a few more indications of gratitude i particularly thank the two hundred one thousand democrats and twenty two republicans who want to vote of twenty to forty one to one seventy seven passed this bill last year and may i thank the eight republicans and forty nine democrats who have brought us so close that it's hard to believe that we are not already there only in the other body is fifty seven percent not a majority  senate has required sixty votes with three votes short we're so close i have every reason to believe that we will in fact this year pass the voting rights the d c voting rights act creating a historic one hundred tenth congress that every member i think will be proud of i have to thank the local and national civil rights organizations that have been a formidable force spreading around the country them the message to many of them to name on the local level the great leader has been d c vote and his army of of residents in the region and in the city carrying the message for us the leadership conference on civil rights the great  nation's great leader on civil rights matters has been a major figure on this bill  could not possibly have gotten this far without them along with every major civil rights organization in the country i particularly thank my own mayor adrian fenty and city council chair vincent gray who join every mayor and city council the district of columbia in supporting our residents and this bill s and i specially thank the residents of the district of columbia living and dead afford for equals citizenship over the ages i've not yet mentioned my senate partners but they have been equally important to this bill you don't pass a bill just in the house senator joe lieberman was the lead democratic sponsor and consistent with the way he has helped me on voting rights in every iteration and there have been several different kinds of bills he became the lead sponsor here but a very special word of thanks is going goes to senator orrin hatch of utah some of you may think that orrin hatch is moved by a deep principle about voting rights that is the principal reason for voting rights dominated much of what he had to say about people who pay taxes go to war without representation i can i thank senator orrin hatch a good friend of mine before this bill who was in cheered him self to me in ways i will never be able to repay by the way in which he has st fast with us yes because his state is involved of course that is his primary obligation but making it clear in the way he discusses the bill that there is a deeply rooted principle in his support the many supporters of this bill will forgive me for not making this the calling of the role but i've come to the floor because on tax day in the district of columbia people have gone all over the city  to say about that but what i want to do this evening during this special hour hour is to essentially this this gus this issue from three  i start with those rights that are there because the greatest frustration i've had as a member of the house is that most americans do not know that six hundred thousand people live in the nation's capital and don't have the same rights they have a lot of i've been in the armed services with people from washington d c they come here twenty million of them every year there is no indication until they began to see license plates that said taxation without taisha no taxation without representation in those license plates it's official license plates were put there precisely to relieve our frustration that most people simply do not know or have a word to say about that because increasingly people do know and the support according to washington post poll sixty one percent say they support the bill i've come to the floor to speak to tonight that's close to the american consensus today why would people before the vote they are americans that's why do you really think that in this say that people who have fought yes and died in every war since the country was created including the war that created the country itself the american revolutionary war that people who pay taxes the same way they do are just like them and should have representation thoroughly american idea so don't be surprised that sixty one percent today support this bill in the house only because that's all that is before the other body the senate as we speak well who are these people we thought we let you see exactly who we're talking about is larry chapman the president of the district of columbia i'm proud to represent him i don't know him at check him out he lives here we represent him i represent him jamie half one by the way i know his uniform he's a firefighter he's a man who risks his life is life with whoever is here member of congress visitor a resident regional resident i don't represent this man jamie has when he lives in maryland he does a same thing for maryland that mr chapman does for d c i don't think you'll find an american citizen if you went out into the microphone who would think that larry chapman who lives in the district of columbia should not have representation in the congress get back and vote on one piece of raising taxes and lower them the only difference is where they lived their lives and a few wiles of one another because marilyn is part of our region a region without borders as a matter of fact you go to maryland you won't even  there both of a battle income taxes both of you don't like it and both of them do it there should be no difference between larry chat and jamie halfman there is no difference the only difference is a difference that only this body can correct why do i say only this body because the congress has exclusive over the nation's capital the framers were intent upon one thing and one thing only when they set up the nation's capital it certainly certainly wasn't to deprive us of the vote it was in make sure that we weren't in a state because you couldn't tell when the state jurisdiction would conflict with the federal jurisdiction that's the only principle that was at stake and indeed all the evidence is that the last thing they would have done would have been to give a vote to mr heflin and not to mr chapman and the reason we know it is that four signers of the constitution which gave the congress this jurisdiction were from maryland and virginia which contributed to the land for the city where we are today to her maryland into from virginia they conservative land on which a sizable number of their own constituents were living they made sure that in the ten year transition period during which the land was being shifted that their residents would still have the vote but once of course it left the jurisdiction of maryland and virginia it was to the congress and the first congress in so many words promise that when the land came after ten years under the complete years stiction that these residents would indeed continue to have the vote we know it for sure because not only were these residents a maryland virginia living in the territory among them were men who had fought in the revolutionary war but one slogan that every schoolchild knows from that war is we're fighting for no taxation without representation  inconceivable and it is impossible and it simply did not happen that the framers of the constitution for maryland virginia gave the land and said take away the vote from the people we represent and once you have jurisdiction  maryland couldn't give us revote once we became laces capital virginia couldn't do it only the congress can do it the constitution itself makes clear that the grant of exclusive jurisdiction to the congress means that the congress is empowered to offer this correction this is another resident of the district of columbia who whose work all of us would in marble because she's a teacher name is shondra jackson sound teaching and counseling at the d c public school has seven seventeen years native like me native washingtonian space federal income tax like all rest of us who live here we're not immune from that there she is a teacher children who was in high young woman who committed herself one of the hardest jobs in the country and pays hefty federal income taxes the same way i say they have no american no one imbued with the spirit of our constitution or of the native ethic the ethic that gave birth to the country no taxation without representation buying stephen kobe all right here on the house floor because it and leave four times he is invited me on the colbert report to make fun of the district of columbia for not having voting rights until under cross examination one day on his program i found out that he was born in the district of columbia themself and he's managed to get himself in the portrait gallery to be sure and either in the men's room or in a corner close to it  but i must say this here a tribute to stephen whom i call colbert because more than all we've been able to do he has gotten the message out there six hundred thousand people live in the nation's capital pay taxes do not have the same representation as they do spawn of me that's why i go on and allow it he says you know  could you possibly represent why don't you often move into the country as what i have to take but taking what kobe or has thrown at me has gotten people to understand yes through his jostling in joking what is in fact a very serious matter and that in a country that is trying to bring democracy all over the world including particular iraq where we have given so many american lives over four thousand year people right here we don't have the same rights that people from the district of columbia are as i speak fighting to get for the residents of iraq afghanistan and so many other countries you support equal voting rights for the people of the district of columbia and in one thousand nine hundred and you got seventy two percent of americans saying yes in january of zero five you got eighty two percent thank you kobe in d c vote leadership conference on civil rights and all of those who have helped us get the message out  eighty two percent american people not a surprising figure not in the united states of america what you may i believe is that well they got a lot of liberals up here and what do you expect a very scientific poll was  behind these figures with seventy three percent eighty two percent you know and there must be some bipartisanship here but are they all piled up and one part of the country are they are all really young people or older people who are these people who support d c voting rights norton says who the people are who want voting rights who are the people who registered these large numbers sixty one percent for this bill up to eighty two percent if you ask the ball question about equal voting rights on in congress with the people who live in the in the nation's capital this is perhaps the most important data and it's fascinating for the senate in particular the to bear in mind because it breaks down who we are talking about in the american public notice how far out the blue bar goes that's because there's no support less then seventy seven percent among all adults eighty two percent is that figure i just showed you are women eighty six percent men seventy eight percent let's look at the age groups is this all a young person's thing or what young people well they were raised to believe that democracies vary by their off the charts eighty seven percent but look at thirty five to fifty four there it's seventy eight percent and look at fifty five years old and above who were many of whom were raised at a time when many americans did not have equal rights and perhaps in view that culture fifty five years old and above eighty two percent of the american people support equal voting rights for the people who live in the nation's capital sometimes we find that some parts of the country favor certain kinds of action more than others you're quite aware that some parts of the country are more military some parts of the country are considered more liberal so it was important to know who are we talking about and this i found perhaps the most fascinating part of the revelation north east eighty four percent of the people midwest eighty percent of the people these are for equal voting rights south ladies and gentlemen put aside stereotypes eighty four percent of southerners support equal voting rights in congress the people of the district of columbia west eighty percent so the south and the northeast give us the largest majority or super majorities eighty four percent each with midwest and west right behind them a